Photos: SpaceX launches Falcon Heavy to Mars with Elon Musk’s Tesla onboard

The world's most powerful rocket in operation, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, blasted off Tuesday on its highly anticipated maiden test flight, carrying CEO Elon Musk's cherry red Tesla Roadster toward an orbit near Mars.

Updated on: Feb 07, 2018 4:21 PM IST

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An image from the SpaceX livestream shows "Starman" sitting in SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's cherry red Tesla roadster after the Falcon Heavy rocket delivered it into orbit around the Earth as David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” played in the background -- with the words “DON’T PANIC” on the dashboard, in a nod to the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” series. (AFP)

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The 230-foot tall rocket is designed to carry nearly 64 metric tonnes into orbit -- more than the mass of a fully loaded 737 jetliner. It was initially intended to restore the possibility of sending humans to the Moon or Mars, but those plans have shifted and now the Falcon Heavy is being considered mainly as a potential equipment carrier to these deep space destinations, Musk said Monday. (SpaceX / REUTERS)

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The Falcon Heavy rocket climbs towards space after lifting off from launch pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. 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 the Moon four decades ago. (Joe Skipper / REUTERS)

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Spectators crowded near and on the A. Max Brewer Memorial Bridge in Titusville and at Cocoa Beach to watch the launch which had gained significant attention based on Musk’s decision to shoot his personal Tesla roadster into space. (Gregg Newton / REUTERS)

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About two minutes into the flight, the two side boosters peeled away from the center core and made their way back toward Earth for an upright landing. “New Olympic sport - Synchronized Landings!” wrote NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik on Twitter. The third, center booster failed to land on an ocean platform -- known as a droneship -- as planned. (Space X / REUTERS)

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“The mission went as well as one could have hoped,” an ecstatic Musk told reporters after the launch, calling it “probably the most exciting thing I have seen literally ever.” “I had this image of a giant explosion on the pad with a wheel bouncing down the road with the Tesla logo landing somewhere,” he said. “Fortunately that is not what happened.” (Joe Skipper / REUTERS)

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The SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket trails flames after lift off. Another rocket and spaceship combination being developed by SpaceX, nicknamed BFR -- alternately known as “Big Falcon Rocket” -- could be the vehicle eventually certified for travelers. (Thom Baur / REUTERS)