SpaceX s rocket Falcon Heavy completes hold-down firing test

Washington Jan 25 (IANS) SpaceX s new heavy-lift rocket Falcon Heavy completed its static firing test at NASA s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday after multiple delays.

The Falcon Heavy rocket ignited all 27 engines of its first-stage at about 12:30 p.m. American Eastern Standard Time for about 10 seconds spewing violent exhaust and steam a video on SpaceX s official twitter showed.

"Falcon Heavy hold-down firing this morning was good. Generated quite a thunderhead of steam " wrote SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in his Twitter post.

He added that the mega-rocket s maiden launch could be just a week away or so.

Previously Musk said that the rocket would carry a red Tesla Roadster and that the payload be injected into an orbit around the sun that lies between Earth s orbit and Mars orbit reports Xinhua.

The Falcon Heavy a reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle is seen as the world s most powerful rocket since NASA s Saturn V.

It is a variant of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and consists of a strengthened Falcon 9 rocket core with two additional Falcon 9 first stages as strap-on boosters.

--IANS
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