After a picture-perfect nighttime launch went off without a hitch, the Falcon Heavy was on its way. However, the center core booster, which was poised to return to land on a drone ship in the Atlantic, missed its mark and crashed into the ocean early in the mission. It wasn't all bad news: SpaceX demonstrated the first reuse and landing of the Heavy's two side rocket boosters. The world's most powerful rocket launched from Florida's Cape Canaveral in the dead of night, lifting off at 2:30 a.m. ET Tuesday in a dazzling flurry of flame, cutting a trail through the dark. The rideshare mission, known as STP-2, carried 24 satellites into orbit for a handful of different contractors, including the Department of Defense, in addition to NASA, universities and the Planetary Society. As the kids say: "This launch was straight fire" SpaceX Prior to launch, Musk was calling this one of the most difficult missions SpaceX has ever performed. A number of complex maneuvers were scheduled to take place, including four separate upper-stage engine burns, three separate deployment orbits and a total mission duration of over six hours. One of the major triumphs was the reuse and landing of the the two side boosters flown on a previous Falcon Heavy mission. The charred metal tubes certainly showed signs of their off-world experience hours before launch, but when they ignited it was business as usual for the Heavy. The boosters landed safely back at the Cape Canaveral Landing Zone at 2:38 a.m ET, a burst of flame lighting up the night in SpaceX's infrared cameras. Entry burn.