The world's most powerful rocket, carrying Elon Musk's personal Tesla sports car, has shot for a solar orbit that will reach all the way to Mars. Here are photos of the launch.
Mr Musk said rocket tests usually contained concrete or steel blocks, but that was just "extremely boring".
So the Tesla boss decided to send his car into space instead.
"I love the thought of a car drifting apparently endlessly through space and perhaps being discovered by an alien race millions of years in the future," .
The Heavy's lift-off thrust is equal to approximately 18 Boeing 747
aircraft, doubling the lift-off punch of its closest competitor.It will be able to send heavy cargo like satellites into space on behalf of governments and private companies.
SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk owns the rocketing Tesla Roadster,
which is shooting for a solar orbit that will reach all the way to Mars.
As
head of the electric carmaker Tesla, he combined his passions to add a
dramatic flair to the Heavy's long-awaited inaugural flight.
On the eve of the flight, Mr Musk said the company had done all it
could to maximise success and he was at peace with whatever happened:
success, "one big boom" or some other calamity.
The longer the flight, he noted, the more the company would learn from the heavily instrumented rocket.
Mr
Musk has had plenty of experience with rocket accidents, from his
original Falcon 1 test flights to his follow-up Falcon 9s, one of which
exploded on a nearby pad during a 2016 ignition test.
This could be the start of a billion-year journey
The car could be traveling between Earth and Mars' neighbourhoods for a billion years, according to the high-tech billionaire.
Mr Musk acknowledged the Roadster could come "quite close" to Mars during its epic cruise, with only a remote chance of crashing into the red planet.
Win or lose, the Heavy already is rattling the launch market.
Its sticker price is $US90 million, less than one-tenth the estimated cost of NASA's Space Launch System megarocket in development for Moon and Mars expeditions.
SpaceX has decided against flying passengers on the Heavy, Mr Musk told reporters, and instead will accelerate development of an even bigger rocket to accommodate deep-space crews. His ultimate goal is to establish a city on Mars.
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