A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launched from Kennedy Space Center early Tuesday morning in what CEO Elon Musk called the company’s “most difficult” mission to date.
The Falcon Heavy, which the company claims is the most powerful launch vehicle in the world, took off from the Florida center at 2:30 a.m. The mission was funded by the U.S. Department of Defense to determine if the rocket can carry military communications satellites.
According to Florida Today, the $90 million rocket was slated to distribute 24 experimental satellites from various agencies and organizations, including NASA, into three separate orbital locations over three-and-a-half hours.
“We are pushing the capabilities of Falcon Heavy this evening to demonstrate the vehicle’s full potential,” Alex Siegel, a materials planner at SpaceX said during launch coverage.
The Planetary Society, a nonprofit headed by Bill Nye the Science Guy, put its LightSail 2 satellite on board, which is designed to convert the energy found in light particles, called photons, into endless fuel used to propel the machine deeper into space.
“Forty years ago, my professor Carl Sagan, [co-founder of The Planetary Society] shared his dream of using solar sail spacecraft to explore the cosmos,” Nye said. “The Planetary Society is realizing the dream.”
If the $7 million project is successful, LightSail 2 will become the first satellite to orbit Earth using sunlight as its only source of power.
The Falcon Heavy, which has reusable three-stage rocket boosters, successfully returned two boosters to grounding pads shortly after launch. However, the core missed its mark, a drone ship, and splashed into the ocean. SpaceX also recovered a rocket fairing, a satellite shield located at the head of the rocket, worth $6 million.
The space company launched its first Falcon Heavy in February 2018, which carried a red Tesla at Musk’s request. The second took off in April and transported a communications satellite for Arabsat, a Saudi Arabian firm.
