February 7, 2018 8:46am EST | Updated SPACEX FALCON HEAVY ROCKET LAUNCHES SUCCESSFULLY Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the Moon, was among the thousands of people that flocked to Cape Canaveral to witness the launch. “Liftoff! We have liftoff on the #falconheavy Congratulations @SpaceX,” he tweeted Tuesday, with a picture of the rocket blasting into the clear Florida skies. NASA also praised Musk’s SpaceX. "All of us in this business know the effort it takes to get to a first flight...and recognize the tremendous accomplishment we witnessed today,” said NASA’s Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot, in a tweet sent out by the space agency. President Trump congratulated Musk and SpaceX in a tweet on Tuesday evening. “Congratulations @ElonMusk and @SpaceX on the successful #FalconHeavy launch. This achievement, along with @NASA’s commercial and international partners, continues to show American ingenuity at its best!” SpaceX also won plaudits from its rivals, such as Boeing, which is working with NASA to develop the powerful Space Launch System rocket for Moon and Mars exploration. “SpaceX’s successful launch today has pushed our industry to go further faster. Boeing will soon launch our own new rocket intended to take humans to Mars and beyond. Congratulations @SpaceX for your contribution to help innovate, compete, and explore.” Tory Bruno, the CEO of United Launch Alliance, which builds the rival Delta IV Heavy rocket, also congratulated Musk and SpaceX in a tweet, as did Jeff Bezos, CEO of Blue Origin. SpaceX describes the Falcon Heavy as “the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two.” The rocket can lift a payload of 64 metric tons (141,000 pounds) into orbit, which is more than twice the payload of the Delta IV Heavy, at one third of the cost, according to SpaceX.