SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket Blasts Successfully Into Space From Kennedy Space Center

Central Floridians were treated to the first Falcon Heavy launch in more than three years on Tuesday morning.

SpaceX successfully launched the Falcon Heavy into space from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center this morning at 9.41 am.

Unfortunately heavy fog surround the launch area resulting in the thousands of spectators that had gathered in Cape Canaveral to watch, unable to see much of the launch itself.

In Central Florida the cloudy skies also resulted in the launch not being visible, although even in East Orange you could hear the distant noise of the launch.

The launch began at 9.41am, and at just over a minute after launch, the moment of peak mechanical stress on the rocket was reached - shortly after, its two side boosters had their engines cut and separated from the main rocket.

Huge cheers could be heard as both boosters landed at SpaceX's landing zones at Cape Canaveral around eight minutes after launch.

The main rocket had left Earth's atmosphere by then, before the payload separated.

According to Kennedy Space Center, the rocket is part of a United States Space Force mission – USSF-44 – and is "expected to deploy two spacecraft payloads directly into geosynchronous orbit, one of which is the TETRA 1 microsatellite."

This launch was initially scheduled for 2020, but was delayed. It's also the first time in three years the Falcon Heavy has been used to launch payloads into space.