The new space race: how billionaires launched the next era of exploration

The launch of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket into deep space has fired dreams of a new era of 21st-century discovery

Scientists and aerospace veterans, many of them still in awe at the cascade of smoke and fire, the roar of a 20-story machine hurtling into the sky, and the sight of a billionaire's electric car floating past Earth, welcomed Elon Musk to the podium in Cape Canaveral this week.

"We want a new space race," Musk told a press conference. "Races are exciting."