SpaceX is launching its most powerful rocket ever this week - here's how to watch live

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SpaceX is launching its most powerful rocket ever this week - here's how to watch live

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SpaceX Falcon Heavy Elon Musk

SpaceX/Flickr

  • SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket is set to launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida between 1:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, February 6.
  • The rocket will be carrying Elon Musk's Tesla roadster as its payload.
  • If the launch is successful, the Falcon Heavy rocket could be used for future manned missions to the moon or even Mars. 

 

SpaceX is set to launch its powerful Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time on Tuesday. 

The 230-foot tall system will be carrying SpaceX founder Elon Musk's personal 2008 Tesla roadster on top as its initial payload. If all goes according to plan, the car will be sent to circle Mars in a billion-year elliptical orbit.

Falcon Heavy is the most powerful rocket SpaceX has ever attempted to launch, and it's much bigger and stronger the company's Falcon 9 system. That means it has enough thrust to launch payloads heavier than a car into space - and could therefore be used for future manned missions to the moon or even Mars.

The soon-to-be-launched rocket has 27 engines, which fire simultaneously. Its three boosters can ostensibly land themselves after delivering payloads to space. Reusing such rocket boosters can save millions of dollars on launches (traditional boosters are discarded after a single use), which makes delivering satellites, or people, into space much cheaper. 

In anticipation of this inaugural launch, SpaceX tested the rocket on January 24. But Musk has said the launch will take a highly coordinated "aerial ballet" to be successful. And he has repeatedly warned that there's a "good chance" the rocket will explode. Whatever happens, the Falcon Heavy launch will be very exciting.

For those who want to watch the drama unfold live, SpaceX will broadcast the event on its website and YouTube channel (as it has with other launches).

The launch is currently scheduled for 1:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, though the window goes as late as 4:30 p.m. that afternoon. The event could get delayed for a variety of reasons, however - a backup time has been set for Wednesday afternoon, though that's not a guarantee, either. 

Whenever Falcon Heavy does launch, the rocket will blast off from the historic Launch Complex 39A - the same pad where the first manned missions to moon originated - at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Tune in here to watch the Falcon Heavy launch live: