https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ7OSO3denQ
Falcon Heavy missile static firing.
There was smoke, there was fire – and, most importantly, nothing on the launch pad seemed to explode. Shortly after noon ET on Wednesday, the SpaceX test fired all 27 engines on its Falcon Heavy rocket, a major step toward launching the massive booster from Florida.
The company did not immediately provide details about the technical performance of the booster during the test. On TwitterHowever, company founder Elon Musk said the test fire was “good” and that it paved the way for a launch in “a week or so.” While the company hasn’t given a date for the launch, it probably won’t be until sometime in early February.
Musk has promised excitement during the launch — either because the most powerful rocket since the space shuttle will take off and fly into space, or because there will be some sort of spectacular in-flight anomaly during the test flight. No rocket with three cores and so many engines has been successfully launched from Earth before.
Due to the experimental nature of the flight, SpaceX has opted for an erratic payload, Musk’s “midnight cherry Tesla Roadster.” The vehicle will be sent into an elongated orbit that will take it to the solar system, near Mars. “Will be in deep space for a billion years if it doesn’t explode on takeoff,” Musk said.
List image by SpaceX