CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral Thursday evening and nailed all three booster return landings, two at the launch site and the center booster on a droneship.
The launch window had been pushed back several times since Sunday as Falcon Heavy readied for its first commercial mission taking a Saudi Arabian communications satellite, Arabsat-6A, into orbit, but conditions were perfect for a lift off Thursday.
SpaceX is celebrating the successful twin landing of the two first-stage rocket boosters at Landing Zones 1 and 2 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The third center core booster also made a perfect landing on SpaceX’s drone ship, Of Course I Still Love You, stationed off the coast in the Atlantic Ocean.
The aerospace company has previously landed 12 first-stage boosters on land, including the two boosters that touched down nearly simultaneously during Falcon Heavy’s first launch in a demonstration flight in February 2018.
“This is 50 to 60 tons to orbit for a fixed price of $90 million. That's a real game-changer,” said Dale Ketcham, with Space Florida. “The first one was for show, classic Elon, we're going to put a red Tesla in orbit around Mars. But that was for show. This one is for business, which is also classic Elon.”
WFTV.com contributed to this report.
Cox Media Group
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