The 23-story-tall Heavy, which previously launched Musk’s cherry red Tesla roadster to space in a 2018 debut test flight, blasted off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center carrying its first customer payload. “T plus 33 seconds into flight, under the power of 5.1 million pounds of thrust, Falcon Heavy is headed to space,” SpaceX launch commentator John Insprucker said on a livestream. In the 2018 test mission, Heavy’s core booster missed the vessel and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. Falcon Heavy carried a communications satellite for Saudi-based telecom firm Arabsat, which will beam internet and television services over Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Privately owned SpaceX, also known as Space Exploration, was founded in 2002 by Musk, who is also a co-founder of electric car maker Tesla Inc.Read full story

Source: The Express Tribune April 12, 2019 09:45 UTC