3rd LD Writethru: SpaceX launches world's most powerful operational rocket

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- SpaceX on Tuesday launched the world's most powerful operational rocket into space in a much-hyped demonstration mission deemed to have the potential to bring a revolution in the space industry.

The Falcon Heavy blasted off from Florida' s Kennedy Space Center at 3:45 p.m. EST (2145 GMT), carrying something just for fun: a red Tesla Roadster belonging to SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk.

So far, everything has gone as planned, with the rocket's two side boosters landing simultaneously back on ground about eight minutes after liftoff.

Eventually, the rocket's second stage will try to place the Roadster, playing David Bowie's Space Oddity, into a Mars-adjacent orbit.

"We estimate it'll be in that orbit for several hundred million years, maybe even in excess of a billion years," Musk told reporters during a media call.

The tech billionaire has repeatedly played down expectations for the launch, saying that the mission might end in explosion.

"This is a test mission as I said there's so much that can go wrong, so we don't want to set expectations of perfection," he said.

He also admitted that there's a chance that the rocket's second stage might not make it out of low-Earth orbit, because it will "coast" for six hours through the Van Allen radiation belt, where it may "get whacked pretty hard."

The Falcon Heavy is essentially three of the company's Falcon 9 rockets bolted together.

With a total of 27 Merlin engines, it's capable of generating "more than 5 million pounds (2.3 million kg) of thrust at liftoff, equal to about eighteen 747 aircraft," according to SpaceX.

Only the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, delivered more payload to orbit.

The rocket will be able to lift 64 tons into orbit, doubling the lift capacity of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost, the company said. Enditem