SpaceX's Falcon Heavy's Historic Launch: Facts to Know

Florida, Feb 7: SpaceX, the renowned private space exploration firm, created history on Tuesday by launching the world's most powerful operational rocket into the space. Falcon Heavy, which has a capacity to carry up to 70 tons into the Earth-level orbit, was successfully launched from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. As a mock payload, the Falcon was attached with SpaceX founder Elon Musk's iconic red Tesla Roadster.

Key facts to know:

- The Falcon Heavy, propelled with 27 engines, packs more than 5 million pounds of thrust at launch. This is roughly three times higher than the Falcon 9.

- The 23-story-tall jumbo rocket becomes the first to carry a road vehicle into the space. To make it more whimsy, a space-suit wearing doll was placed on the driver's seat.

- SpaceX has also developed on cost-cutting mechanism, as the twin engines which propelled the upper-crust of the rocket, flew back to the surface. They were successfully received at the twin launching pad at Cape Canaveral.

- The third engine -- which was the heaviest -- was also expected to be safely salvaged as it flew back into the Atlantic off the coast of Cape Canaveral, at a speed of 483 kmph. However, it missed the target and ended up damaging two if its thrusters. The vessel which was kept for the centre booster rocket's reception was also damaged.

- Falcon Heavy, in terms of carrying capacity, has surpassed the NASA's Saturn 5, which was launched at the moon. Interestingly, the ground used for the Falcon's launch is the same from where the Saturn was sent to the moon nearly 40 years ago.

- The last rocket engine which matched the operational strength of Falcon was Soviet-era Energia, which retired in 1988.

The historic launch, analysts say, will pave the way towards a space race, with more paid missions to be sent in the near future. SpaceX has seemingly sent shockwaves to the rival camps of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co, whose joint venture -- the Delta 4 Heavy of rival United Launch Alliance (ULA) -- matches roughly half the strength of the Falcon launched yesterday.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 07, 2018 11:31 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).