From start to finish, Sunday’s Falcon Heavy launch delivered spectacular imagery

A Falcon Heavy rocket launched Sunday night from Florida for the fifth time in five years. But this was the first launch of the triple-core booster at dusk, and this rare evening light provided some spectacular new insights into rocket takeoffs and returns.

This post-sunset lighting can be seen in the featured image above, showing a white core and a reddish hue bouncing off the stage above. It comes from the fact that our eyes meet.

Currently the second most powerful rocket in the world after NASA’s Space Launch System, the Falcon Heavy always puts on a spectacular show by launching 27 Merlin engines at once. It holds the record for a rocket with a first stage engine to reach orbit.

Sunday’s launch, dubbed USSF-67, carried two payloads into the US Space Force’s geostationary orbit. This is his second launch of his Falcon Heavy for the Space Force, with another planned for this spring.

This engine shot shows the rocket’s three separate cores. Modified versions of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets, each with its own plume.

Here the rocket is seen rising into the sky before booster separation. This occurs approximately 2 minutes and 30 seconds after launch. At this point, the side-mounted boosters separate from the rocket’s central core.

The core burns for another 30 seconds before the kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants are consumed. Meanwhile, the side-mounted boosters stop moving forward and must turn to return to the landing strip several kilometers away from the launch site.