SpaceX launched its mega Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time in more than three years Tuesday, hoisting satellites for the military and then nailing side-by-side booster landings back near the pad.

Thick fog shrouded NASA�s Kennedy Space Center as the rocket blasted off at midmorning. The crowd at the launch site couldn�t even see the pad three miles (5 kilometers) away, but heard the roar of the 27 first-stage engines.

Both side boosters peeled away two minutes after liftoff, flew back to Cape Canaveral, and landed alongside one another, just a few seconds apart. The core stage was discarded at sea, its entire energy needed to get the Space Force�s satellites to their intended extra-high orbit.

This was SpaceX�s fourth flight of a Falcon Heavy, currently the most powerful rocket in use. The first, in 2018, launched SpaceX chief Elon Musk�s red Tesla convertible; the next two Heavy launches followed in 2019, lifting satellites.

(AP)