Published Feb 6th, 2018 4:02PM EST If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs. After a handful of delays pushed back the planned first flight of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket for several hours today, the company finally got the weather to cooperate and were able to hit the big red button that sent the massive beast skyward. Falcon Heavy’s 27 engines lit up just as planned, and the massive ship pushed its way out of Earth’s atmosphere with incredible grace. The two side boosters separated perfectly and headed back down towards the surface, while the rocket’s center core disconnected a moment later. All three headed back to their landing positions. The main core will land on a drone ship positioned in the ocean and the side boosters will returned to dry land safe and sound. SpaceX originally slated its debut of Falcon Heavy as early as 2013, but multiple delays challenged the company’s engineers and its first flight took much longer to come to fruition. In any case, it most certainly appears to have been worth the wait, as the flight went far better than anyone could has possibly predicted, including SpaceX head Elon Musk. Musk was incredibly careful to manage expectations in advance of today’s launch, famously stating that anything other than a launchpad explosion would be a win in his book. It’s quite obvious that he got much more than that today. We can see SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Orlando near UCF! @WFTV pic.twitter.com/WvL8y5x5Vf