World's Most Powerful Rocket Takes Flight Again

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket—the most powerful operational rocket in the world, though soon to be overpowered—took flight Tuesday for the first time in three years. The rocket launched about 9:40am from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying two classified satellites into space for the US military in a mission dubbed USSF-44, per CNN and Space.com. The rocket famously carried SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster into space in 2018, but it has been used only twice since then.

In 2019, it ferried into orbit a TV and phone service satellite for Saudi Arabia-based communications company Arabsat and a collection of 24 experimental satellites for the US Defense Department, CNN reports. SpaceX has since been relying on its less powerful Falcon 9 rocket, used in almost 50 missions this year alone. As CNET reports, "Falcon Heavy is essentially three Falcon 9 boosters strapped together for three times the thrust." SpaceX successfully recovered the two side boosters, which touched down on landing pads near the Florida coast less than 10 minutes after liftoff and may be reused. This marked "the 150th and 151st recovery of orbital class rockets," according to SpaceX.

The company made no attempt to recover the center booster, as planned, and it will remain in its ocean grave. The military's Space Systems Command said the launch would put satellites into orbit for its Innovation and Prototyping Delta, whose mission areas include rapid prototyping development, prototype space operations, worldwide deployable telemetry, and tracking. (NASA's more powerful Space Launch System is to launch Nov. 14 following delays.)