SpaceX shows a video flyby of its Falcon Heavy rocket (Engadget)

Launch different

"The scale of the craft is pretty impressive, as the video clearly shows. "With more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff -- equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft at full power -- Falcon Heavy will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two," SpaceX notes.

Details of the mission are still sketchy, but Musk has said that the rocket will go into a "billion year elliptic Mars orbit" with a cherry read Tesla Roadster onboard as dead weight. Why? For the lulz, of course. "Test flights of new rockets usually contain mass simulators in the form of concrete or steel blocks. That seemed extremely boring," Elon Musk wrote last month."

SpaceX shows a video flyby of its Falcon Heavy rocket