Falcon Heavy’s maiden voyage takes Elon Musk closer to his vision of cheap space travel.
What happened: The new Falcon Heavy rocket launched safely and put its experimental payload—Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster—into orbit. SpaceX then landed two of the rocket’s three boosters back on Earth.
Big and cheap: The rocket hauls a lot and is (comparatively) frugal. As the Economist notes, a Falcon Heavy launch using old rockets costs $90 million and can put a 64-ton payload into low-Earth orbit. That’s a quarter the cost of the next most powerful rocket, Delta IV Heavy, which can take just half the payload.
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