Amy Gardner saw something incredible outside her window on Tuesday, the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, cutting through the clouds into the sky, leaving a vertical trail of white smoke behind it.
“I just watched the SpaceX rocket launch from my window,” Gardner posted on her Twitter account. “Thus the delay at Miami Airport as they routed all the northbound traffic inland. Good day overall.”
Inverse has reached out to Gardener, deputy national politics editor at the Washington Post, to find out more about the image, and we’ll update when we hear back.
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket is comprised of three boosters (two of them had been to space and back already) and 27 rocket engines that create 5 million pounds of thrust at lift-off. It’s the most powerful operational rocket in the world at the moment, and SpaceX, started by Elon Musk in 2002 with the initial goal of sending humans to Mars, now looks to use the Falcon Heavy — and the even bigger BFR — to carry heavier payloads and to space.
The launch on Tuesday seemed to go off without a hitch and the “mission” seems to be going well, as [video of Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster with a dummy wearing a space suit in the front seat, appears to be on its way around the sun in a Mars orbit.
Meanwhile, a few minutes after the launch, the side boosters of the rocket landed in sync. SpaceX later revealed that the rocket’s central booster missed its target on board a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
Here was the image Gardner snapped of the launch from her plane:
Here’s the full webcast of the launch:
Editor’s Note: As of 2:43 p.m. Eastern, 2/7/2018, this story has been updated to reflect the most current information about the Falcon Heavy’s core.
