Falcon 9 is a family of two-stage medium launch vehicles to orbit, named for the use of nine first stage engines, designed and manufactured by SpaceX. Variants include the older Falcon 9 v1.0 and Falcon 9 v1.1, as well as the current Falcon 9 Full Thrust, two partially reusable launch systems powered by rocket engines using liquid oxygen (LOX) and rocket grade kerosene (RP-1) propellants. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The Tesla Roadster that launched Tuesday on the first test flight of SpaceX's powerful Falcon Heavy rocket is heading farther into space than expected. SpaceX did its part to advance America's rocket renaissance Tuesday, successfully launching its massive Falcon Heavy rocket on its maiden voyage in front of millions of people who watched in person and via livestream. The three-booster rocket — more powerful than any rocket since Saturn V that took astronauts to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s — lifted off at 3:45 p.m. ET from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. As its second stage moved away from the planet, two of Falcon Heavy's solid rocket boosters fell back to Earth and landed vertically, as planned. One day, the Falcon Heavy could be used to transport colonists to Mars so that humans can become what SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and others have called a "multi-planetary species," capable of surviving if a natural disaster or of human origin made the Earth uninhabitable. Tuesday's theft, however, was a cherry red prototype of a Roadster, an electric vehicle made by Musk's other company, Tesla. In the driver's seat of the car, a mannequin nicknamed "Starman" wore a prototype spacesuit designed for use by future astronauts on missions. the International Space Station (ISS) and eventually to Mars. The rocket and its payload are now embarked on what Musk called a six-hour "grand tour" through Earth's Van Allen belts, where they will be bombarded by intense radiation from captured charged particles. by the magnetic field of our planet. If the Falcon Heavy's second stage survives the trip, a final burn will propel the Tesla at 24,000 miles per hour into an elliptical orbit around the sun that extends beyond Mars. This is the first time a private company has launched something deep into space. Alongside the Falcon Heavy, SpaceX is developing a crewed version of its Dragon capsule, which, in conjunction with Space's smaller Falcon 9 rocket, has been used to transport cargo to the ISS since 2012. Last year, Musk stated that the Falcon Heavy would be used to send two space tourists in a Dragon capsule on a wild journey around the moon. But on Monday, Musk said the rocket would be used strictly for cargo for the near future. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a Personalized Essay SpaceX, which is based in Hawthorne and whose full name is Space Exploration Technologies Corp., attempted to land the central core on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean, but the booster was lost when It struck the water at approximately 300 mph and approximately 328 feet from the platform, knocking out two of the platform's thrusters and scattering debris across the deck. As planned, the second stage engine shut down and restarted twice before embarking on a “long experimental coast” into deep space – y..