Falcon Heavy hot fire as seen from Kennedy Space Center Press Site

The mission featured Luxembourg’s NAOS satellite along with seven other secondary satellites. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base at 11:53 a.m. PDT (2:53 p.m. EDT / 1853 UTC).

Building on development for NASA’s commercial crew program, Space Adventures announced an agreement Tuesday with SpaceX to fly up to four paying space tourists on a standalone mission aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft in late 2021 or 2022 that could reach an altitude two-to-three times higher than the International Space Station.

Now in an elliptical orbit around the sun, the Tesla Roadster launched atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket Tuesday during the powerful booster’s maiden flight was expected to pass beyond the moon’s orbit overnight Wednesday and reach the orbit of Mars in July as it puts Earth in its rear view mirror, analysts said.