Cape Canaveral - Tuesday November 21, 2022: The world’s most powerful operational rocket, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, took off for the first time in over three years Tuesday morning carrying a classified payload into orbit for the US Space Force.
Liftoff occurred amidst a foggy morning at Kennedy Space Center which obscured the initial take-off. Still, that did not delay the launch which happened right on time at 9:41 AM EDT from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A). The two re-usable side boosters separated on cue and returned to the launch pad without incident. This was only the fourth Falcon Heavy rocket flight.
VIEW the launch on nasaspaceflight.com below:
The mission, named USSF-44, carried at least two different satellites, a TETRA-1 and a second unknown satellite. There was the possibility that there were additional classified payloads onboard, but exact details were not released before liftoff.
The launch was originally slated for the fourth quarter of 2020, but the mission faced multiple delays as a result of what officials called “payload readiness” issues. The exact readiness problems were not publicly released.