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SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket launches X-37B space plane

The rocket lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:07 a.m. GMT on December 29

© AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File

NEW YORK, December 29. /TASS/. The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the SpaceX company have launched the Falcon Heavy rocket carrying the X-37B uncrewed military space plane.

The rocket lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:07 a.m. GMT on December 29.

Falcon Heavy, partially reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle, is part of the Falcon family designed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company.

Falcon Heavy was initially developed for the Crew Dragon manned spacecraft, as well as for future missions to the moon and Mars. However, Musk announced after the first launch that the vehicle would be used only to send heavy satellites into orbit. There are plans to replace SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, as well as Dragon ships, with a fully reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle. The project, named Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), was unveiled at the International Astronautical Congress in Australia in September 2017. Musk said in November 2018 that the project had been renamed Starship.

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