SpaceX launches Falcon Heavy rocket for first time in three years

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022. (John Raoux/AP/PA)

SpaceX launched its mega Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time in more than three years on Tuesday, hoisting satellites for the military and then achieving side-by-side booster landings back near the launchpad.

Thick fog shrouded Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center as the rocket blasted off mid-morning.

Both side boosters peeled away two minutes after liftoff, flew back to Cape Canaveral, Florida, and landed alongside one another, just a few seconds apart.

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida (John Raoux/AP/PA)

The core stage was discarded at sea, its entire energy needed to get the Space Force’s satellites to their intended extra-high orbit.

This was SpaceX’s fourth flight of a Falcon Heavy, currently the most powerful rocket in use.

The first, in 2018, launched SpaceX chief Elon Musk’s red Tesla convertible; the next two Heavy launches followed in 2019, lifting satellites.