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The Falcon Heavy rocketb blasting off (Photo SpaceX)

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It was yesterday afternoon in Florida when SpaceX launched its Falcon Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral on its maiden flight. What was announced as the most powerful rocket in activity launched its owner Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster car with a dummy in a space suit nicknamed Starman to insert it into an orbit around the Sun between the Earth’s and Mars’.

The two side boosters, both already used in 2016 in previous missions, were the first to separate and then begin the maneuvers that led them to landing on the platforms set up for that task at Cape Canaveral. After a few seconds the second stage also separated from the core booster, which instead attempted to land on the autonomous spaceport drone ship “Of course I still love you”.

The Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft blasting off atop a Soyuz rocket (Image NASA TV)

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A few hours ago the Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with aboard three new crew members to be transported to the International Space Station carrying Norishige Kanai, Anton Shkaplerov and Scott Tingle, three new crew members. This time the Soyuz traveled on the 2-day path instead of the 6-hour fast path used in the previous launches.

The Dragon space cargo ship blasting off atop a Falcon 9 rocket to start its CRS-13 mission (Image courtesy SpaceX)

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A little while ago the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft blasted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in its CRS-13 (Cargo Resupply Service 13) mission, also referred to as SPX-13. After just over ten minutes it separated successfully from the rocket’s last stage and went en route. This is the 13th mission for the Dragon spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station with various cargoes and then return to Earth, again with various cargoes.

The JPSS-1 satellite blasting off atop a Delta 2 rocket (Image NASA TV)

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A little while ago the JPSS-1 satellite blasted off atop a Delta 2 rocket in its 7920 configuration from the Vandenberg base. After almost one hour it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage and entered a Sun-synchronous orbit, meaning it will fly over every area of ​​the Earth’s surface at the same local time, at an altitude of about 824 kilometers (512 miles).

The Cygnus spece cargo ship blasting off atop an Antares rocket (Photo NASA/Bill Ingalls)

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A little while ago Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft blasted off atop an Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), part of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) on Wallops Island. After about nine minutes it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage went en route to its destination. This is its eighth official mission, called Orbital-8 or simply Orb-8 but also CRS OA-8, to transport supplies to the International Space Station for NASA.