SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch spotted from space station (photo)

News
By Mike Wall
published

A camera mounted to the orbiting lab's exterior captured the Jan. 15 liftoff.

A high-definition camera on the International Space Station's exterior captured this photo of the plume created by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket as it launched the USSF-67 mission for the U.S. Space Force on Jan. 15, 2023.
A high-definition camera on the International Space Station's exterior captured this photo of the plume created by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket as it launched the USSF-67 mission for the U.S. Space Force on Jan. 15, 2023. (Image credit: NASA)

The launch of SpaceX's most powerful rocket over the weekend was visible from orbit.

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy lifted off Sunday (Jan. 15) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sending multiple satellites aloft for the U.S. Space Force on a mission called USSF-67.

Photographers on the ground captured great shots of the launch. One off-Earth observer did as well — the International Space Station (ISS), which happened to be in the right place at the right time on Sunday.

Related: 8 ways SpaceX has transformed spaceflight forever

"An external high-definition camera on the International Space Station captured the launch plume of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket after it had ascended to Earth orbit following its liftoff on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2023, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida," NASA officials wrote in a description of the photo.

"The space station was flying 262 miles [422 kilometers] above the Atlantic Ocean just after an orbital sunset at the time of this photograph," they added.

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A SpaceX Falcon Heavy launched Jan. 15, 2023 on a classified mission for the U.S. Space Force called USSF-67. (Image credit: SpaceX)
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USSF-67 was the fifth-ever mission for the Falcon Heavy, which employs three strapped-together Falcon 9 first stages. The flight lofted a military communications satellite called Continuous Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM 2 and five smaller spacecraft for the Space Force.

The Heavy, which generates more than 5 million tons of thrust at liftoff, was until recently the most powerful operational rocket in the world. NASA's huge Space Launch System (SLS) claimed that title when it launched for the first time on Nov. 16, 2022, on the agency's Artemis 1 moon mission. (The SLS generates about 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.)

SpaceX launched 61 orbital missions in 2022, and 2023 could be an even bigger year for the company. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said last August that the company was "aiming for up to 100 flights" in 2023. 

SpaceX has launched five missions so far this year, including two in the past two days. USSF-67 was the only mission of these five to use a Falcon Heavy; the other four employed Falcon 9s.

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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Mike Wall
Mike Wall
Senior Space Writer

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.