It\u2019s been said before, but it bears repeating: Tuesday was a momentous and historic day in the history of space exploration as SpaceX successfully conducted the maiden flight of its Falcon Heavy rocket \u2013 a heavy lift vehicle capable of placing 140,000 lbs into Low Earth Orbit. But beyond the sheer numbers of its capabilities, Falcon Heavy has ushered in a new era and continues to fulfill SpaceX\u2019s promise to create a more open access environment to the space beyond Earth orbit.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Falcon Heavy \u2013 driving the future:<\/b><\/p>\n
The maiden voyage of Falcon Heavy was a huge success. Not only did the rocket meet all of its test objectives \u2013 including engine ignition, launch, performance at Max Q, successful demonstration of side booster separation, orbit insertion, orbit loiter, second stage reignition, and the TMI (Trans-Mars Injection) burn \u2013 but it also resulted in SpaceX doing something its skeptics (and even Elon Musk) said likely would not work the first time out.<\/p>\n
But SpaceX has an amazing ability to take the impossible and make it look effortless, though the hard engineering work and long hours of analysis it takes to pull off those impossible moments cannot be overstated.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n