SpaceX's mighty Falcon Heavy rocket blasts off on a secret mission

It was likely the last time Musk could boast that he had the most powerful rocket in use, since it was likely the last time he would do it.

A secret national security mission for the U.S. Space Force was launched by the Falcon Heavy. The company's workhorse Falcon 9 rockets combine to offer 5 million pounds of thrust, making them the most powerful rocket in the world.

NASA's mega moon rocket, which will sit on the Kennedy Space Center launchpad next door, could be just as impressive. The Space Launch System can carry 8.8 million pounds of thrust. Hardware problems, hydrogen leaks, and weather have scuttled previous attempts, but the U.S. space agency plans to go to the moon on Nov. 14. The dates were announced as backups.

It may be an indication of how much the space economy has evolved over the past five years, with Musk's company leading the way. Commercial launches have become commonplace with what was novel and exotic now.

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Tourists jammed Florida's Space Coast to catch a glimpse and witness the sonic booms after Musk shot a red car into space. Neil, Buzz, and Michael were all shot from the same launch pad.

Spectators watched the landing of rocket boosters. After a single use, rocket hardware was often dumped in the ocean. The cost of space travel has gone up, and now startup and competitors want to recycle their equipment to cut that cost. The idea that a private company could do all this earned them a new level of respect and galvanized their efforts to build a rocket to support Musk's plan to colonize Mars.

Two SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket side boosters return for a landing at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in February 2018. Credit: Joe Raedle / Getty Images

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The rocket left the ground at 9:41 a.m. after three years of problems with its satellite cargo. On the 1st of November. It's expected to make two deliveries into an Earth orbit 22,000 miles above the equator, among them a micro satellite built by a Boeing subsidiary.

The director of innovation and prototyping for the Space and Missile Systems Center at New Mexico's Kirtland Air Force Base said in a 2020 statement that they are helping the nation meet

One of the goals of the company is to be more flexible in the development and deployment of innovative space assets.

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The two side boosters of the Falcon Heavy were brought to the spaceport in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to be refurbished for another flight. The company didn't try to recover the center core like it did in June because it needed a lot of fuel.

Though it has lost some of its PR luster, Falcon Heavy is still in demand and can accommodate most satellite missions today. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a telescope that will study dark matter and take pictures of distant planets, is going to be sent into space by a powerful rocket. The total cost of the observatory's launch is $255 million.

The rocket may soon lose its reputation as the most powerful, but it could still win back the title with its development of a super heavy-class rocket that NASA plans to use to shuttle astronauts to the moon's surface. Musk wants to build a settlement on the red planet using a fleet of Starships.

SpaceX stacked the Starship rocket at its South Texas launchpad in advance of a company update on the project in February 2022. Credit: JIM WATSON / AFP via Getty Images

The Starship, which is 400 feet tall, could give NASA's moon rocket a run for its money. One of the previous prototype test flights succeeded with no damage.

At a February event in Boca Chica, Texas, Musk said the rocket would fly before the end of the year The billionaire founder is notorious for making unrealistic timelines.

He asked, "Do you want the present or the future?" Do you want the future where we become a spacefaring civilization, and are in many worlds, or one where we are forever confined to Earth?