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SpaceX made history on Tuesday. (I know. Yawn. Again?)
Launching the world's biggest rocketship since the Saturn V "Moon Rocket," and launching from the historic LC-39A launchpad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida (the same launchpad used by the Apollo 11 mission), SpaceX became the first privately held company to launch a payload past Mars.
And the first company to send a car into space.
And the first company to land two rocket boosters, simultaneously, after launch.
SpaceX's latest "first" -- juggling multiple simultaneous rocket landings. Image source: SpaceX.
SpaceX also reaffirmed its title as the only company to ever wreck a rocket core by trying to land it on a floating barge at sea -- and missing. (But SpaceX isn't playing up that point.)
How it went down
You can watch the entire maiden flight of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy (FH) rocket on its website for yourself. But here's a quick rundown of what happened on Tuesday. Roughly one minute after launching from KSC at 3:35 PM EST, FH broke the sound barrier and reached "Max-Q" on its flight. A minute and a half later, FH's two rocket boosters detached and proceeded to descend to Earth, firing retrorockets and landing safely back at the Cape.
30 seconds later, the main engine cut off, and FH's core descended to make its own ill-fated landing attempt in the Atlantic. FH's second stage kicked in, and its payload fairing separated, revealing the payload: Elon Musk's cherry red Tesla Roadster, with a dummy "Starman" in the driver's seat and the words "Don't Panic!" emblazoned on the dash display.
At last report, that car was still en route far out into the solar system, with a projected apohelion (its farthest point before the Sun's gravity starts dragging it back) of 2.61 astronomical units from the Sun -- well within the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter. The car will occupy this orbit, says Elon Musk, for the next billion years or so.
Falcon Heavy before liftoff -- destination Mars and beyond. Image source: SpaceX.
What it means to investors
There's a lot to unpack as a result of Falcon Heavy's launch, and don't worry -- we'll explore all aspects of it in the coming days. For now though, let's focus on just the (literal) biggest point:
On its first test flight, SpaceX demonstrated that it now has the world's biggest rocketship -- not just by size, but by capability. As sketched out in a graphic on the company's website, FH's payload to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) was 140,660 lbs -- 70 tons, give or take. That's roughly three times the payload of the Delta IV Heavy, the biggest rocket produced by Boeing (NYSE: BA) and Lockheed Martin's (NYSE: LMT) United Launch Alliance (ULA). It's nearly four times the payload of Boeing and Lockheed's workhorse Atlas V 551, and more than Russia's Proton M rocket, China's LM3B, or Airbus's (NASDAQOTH: EADSY) Ariane 5 can carry as well.