SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from Kennedy Space Center: Photos

Photographers are on scene as the Space X rocket prepares to launch into orbit.

CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

SpaceX Falcon Heavy departing from Kennedy Space Center.

NASA/Aubrey Gemignani HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

The Space X rocket departs for space.

NASA/Aubrey Gemignani HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

The spacecraft will travel to the metallic asteroid Psyche, where it will enter orbit in 2029 and be the first spacecraft to explore a metal-rich asteroid.

SpaceX

NASA's Psyche spacecraft will travel to a metal-rich asteroid by the same name orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter to study its composition.

AFP via Getty Images

People gather at the Canaveral National Seashore to watch the launch.

Anadolu via Getty Images

The spacecraft departing Earth's atmosphere into space.

Joe Marino/UPI/Shutterstock

As the spacecraft departs Earth's orbit, the smoke from the rocket is seen with the flames still visible.

AP

A side rocket landing in Cape Canaveral.

AP

Crowds on a beach in Cape Canaveral, watch the first of two boosters land about eight minutes after the launch.

AP

Two side boosters from SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket successfully land at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023.

SpaceX

This comes, just minutes after NASA's Psyche launch from Kennedy Space Center.

SpaceX