SpaceX launched the super-heavy rocket Falcon Heavy

The launch took place at 23:45, Moscow time, from the Kennedy Space Center 39A startup complex in Florida. The start window was opened at 21:30 Moscow time, and the company has several times made the launch due to strong winds .

SpaceX calls the new Falcon the world's most powerful missile. Its maximum load capacity is nearly 64 tons, on Mars the missile can deliver about 17 tons of freight

The rocket sent a payload – a Tesla Roadster – in an elongated circumolar orbit that crosses the trajectories of Earth's movements and Mars. The probability of deducing it directly to the near-Martian orbit mask called extremely small. If this project succeeds in 2018, there will be two more Falcon Heavy launches. Structurally, the first step of the Falcon Heavy consists of a central unit and a pair of side accelerators, which are the first improved stages of the heavy Falcon 9 missile. The cost of launching a super heavy missile is estimated at 90-120 million dollars.

By comparison, the launch of Delta IV by the ULA costs 164-400 million dollars. This rocket still remains the largest freight load in the world, its maximum load is about 29 tons.

"Falcon Heavy is able to raise twice as much for a quarter of the cost (compared to Delta IV," Lentee.ru "), in a conversation with the consultant Bloomberg aeronautics AlixPartners company Luigi Peluso: "If it works, it means opportunities for the lunar program, which appears on the long-term agenda of Washington and NASA."

The American Lunar Program, which ran from 1961 to 1972, used the Saturn V rocket orbiting the Earth at 140 tons of cargo, Saturn V launches were canceled in 1973 including because of high cost.

Super rocket projects carrier rockets are made only in the US Four departures of the Soviet N-1 carrier failed The rocket was tested from 1969 to 1972, it was to be used for Soviet lunar missions. – heavy in USSR, Energia, was launched twice – in 1987 and 1988, both times successfully. This rocket was created, including for the Soviet orbital ship "Buran". The "Energia-Buran" program was closed in 1993.