--- title: The SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch Was Almost Perfect description: The first launch of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket went off without a hitch on Tuesday — almost, anyway. canonical: https://time.com/5137135/falcon-heavy-core-landing-spacex/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-07T15:31:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T22:14:50.000Z article:section: Science og:title: Here's What Happened to the SpaceX Falcon Heavy's Main Core og:description: But the main core didn't make it home og:url: https://time.com/5137135/falcon-heavy-core-landing-spacex/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7b7e07971e71dee6/6988fadaab6d770b346b1a22/falcon-heavy-main-core.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TOPSHOT-US-SPACE-SPACEX-AEROSPACE og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What Happened to the SpaceX Falcon Heavy's Main Core twitter:description: But the main core didn't make it home twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7b7e07971e71dee6/6988fadaab6d770b346b1a22/falcon-heavy-main-core.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch Was Almost Perfect by [Lisa Marie Segarra](https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra Updated: Dec 12, 2023 10:14 PM UTCPublished: Feb 7, 2018 3:31 PM UTC  The SpaceX Falcon Heavy launches from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on February 6, 2018, on its demonstration mission. The world's most powerful rocket, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, blasted off Tuesday on its highly anticipated maiden test flight, carrying CEO Elon Musk's cherry red Tesla roadster to an orbit near Mars. Screams and cheers erupted at Cape Canaveral, Florida as the massive rocket fired its 27 engines and rumbled into the blue sky over the same NASA launchpad that served as a base for the US missions to Moon four decades ago. The SpaceX Falcon Heavy launches from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on February 6, 2018, on its demonstration mission. The world's most powerful rocket, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, blasted off Tuesday on its highly anticipated maiden test flight, carrying CEO Elon Musk's cherry red Tesla roadster to an orbit near Mars. Screams and cheers erupted at Cape Canaveral, Florida as the massive rocket fired its 27 engines and rumbled into the blue sky over the same NASA launchpad that served as a base for the US missions to Moon four decades ago.Photo by Jim Watson—AFP/Getty Images by [Lisa Marie Segarra](https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra Updated: Dec 12, 2023 10:14 PM UTCPublished: Feb 7, 2018 3:31 PM UTC The first launch of [SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket](http://time.com/5136666/spacex-falcon-heavy-launch-video-slow-motion/) went off without a hitch on Tuesday — almost, anyway. The Falcon Heavy launched and deployed its payload, a cherry red Tesla roadster, into space successfully. Two of its three nine-engine cores, the Falcon Heavy’s side boosters, also returned to Earth, landing nearly simultaneously in a brilliant display of aeronautical precision:  But the Falcon Heavy’s center booster wasn’t so fortunate. While many observers, including [SpaceX](http://time.com/money/5135565/elon-musk-falcon-heavy-rocket-launch-cost/) CEO and founder Elon Musk and [President Donald Trump](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/961073467784421382), were celebrating SpaceX’s successful [Falcon Heavy launch](http://time.com/5136743/falcon-heavy-launch-video-spacex/), the middle core missed the drone ship where it was supposed to land, [The Verge reports](https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/6/16980954/spacex-falcon-heavy-rocket-middle-core-failed-landing). In order to land successfully on SpaceX’s drone ship, the Falcon Heavy’s main core needed three engines to light, slowing it down and helping it aim successfully. But only one of them did so, causing the core to miss the ship by about 300 feet. The main core hit the water at about 300 miles per hour, damaging the drone ship and covering the deck with shrapnel, Musk said in a press call following the Falcon Heavy launch. SpaceX attempts to land its rockets back on earth so they can be reused later, cutting down on overall costs. But even if the Falcon Heavy’s main core didn’t successfully return to terra firma, the mission was still a success, allowing [Musk’s Tesla Roadster to find its new home in space.](http://time.com/5136583/spacex-tesla-car-space-livestream-video-elon-musk/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5137135/falcon-heavy-core-landing-spacex/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5137135/falcon-heavy-core-landing-spacex/"},"headline":"The SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch Was Almost Perfect","datePublished":"2018-02-07T15:31:00.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T22:14:50.000Z","description":"Two of its landing rockets failed to fire, meaning it crashed back to earth at 300 miles per hour","url":"https://time.com/5137135/falcon-heavy-core-landing-spacex/","keywords":["Tech","Space","onetime","tech"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7b7e07971e71dee6/6988fadaab6d770b346b1a22/falcon-heavy-main-core.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lisa Marie Segarra","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7b7e07971e71dee6/6988fadaab6d770b346b1a22/falcon-heavy-main-core.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TOPSHOT-US-SPACE-SPACEX-AEROSPACE","caption":"TOPSHOT-US-SPACE-SPACEX-AEROSPACE","creditText":"Photo by Jim Watson—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5137135/falcon-heavy-core-landing-spacex/","name":"The SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch Was Almost Perfect"}}]}] ```