Car launches can be spectacular but Tesla has defininately trumped them all. Elon Musk has sent his red Tesla Roadster to the red planet, Mars. A new SpaceX jumbo rocket became the world's most powerful launch vehicle in operation when it blasted off from Florida on Tuesday in its debut test flight.
The 23-story tall Falcon Heavy roared off its launch pad at 3:45 p.m. ESTÂ at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, from the same site used by NASA's towering Saturn V rockets to carry Apollo missions to the moon more than 40 years ago.
The rocket is carrying Elon Musk's own Tesla Roadster as a mock payload.
Propelled by 27 rocket engines, the Falcon Heavy packs more than 5 million pounds of thrust at launch.
The Roadster is supposed to be sent into a virtually indefinite solar orbit, on a path taking it as far from Earth as Mars. SpaceX has planted a mannequin wearing SpaceX's spacesuit in the driver's seat of the convertible. The car is said to have David Bowie's Space Oddity on loop.
The Tesla is fitted with three cameras and is streaming live.