SpaceX’s powerful Falcon Heavy rocket has already completed five flights.
The Falcon Heavy lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on Sunday (January 15) at 5:56 pm EST (22:56 GMT), launching a classified mission for the US Space Force called USSF-67.
Launch of USSF-67. Go Falcon Heavy! Forward, cosmic forces! a mission team member said over SpaceX’s communications link during the launch, which the company broadcast live.
On the subject: SpaceX Falcon Heavy launches US military satellites on first flight in 3 years
The SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off on January 2 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. February 15, 2023 during the USSF-67 mission to the US Space Force. This was the fifth Falcon Heavy launch. (Image credit: SpaceX)
The Falcon Heavy consists of three modified first stages of the SpaceX Falcon 9 workhorse. These three are connected by straps, the center one has an upper stage that carries the payload.
The Falcon Heavy’s first stage boosters are designed to be reusable, like those of the Falcon 9, and two of them successfully returned to Earth on Sunday: USSF-67’s side boosters landed safely at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which is next door. at KSC eight minutes after launch. For each of them it was the second landing; both participated in USSF-44, the Falcon Heavy mission for the Space Force, which launched on November 1, 2022.
The central booster on USSF-67 was a new machine and it would no longer be able to fly. It crashed into the Atlantic Ocean as planned shortly after launch on Sunday, using too much fuel to return home.
Meanwhile, the Falcon Heavy upper stage continued to deliver payloads into orbit. But we did not get to see much of this journey; SpaceX completed a webcast of the launch immediately after the launch vehicle landed, at the request of the Space Force. It is not yet clear when the payload is planned to be deployed.
USSF-67’s primary satellite is Continuous Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM 2 (CBAS-2), which is heading into geostationary orbit about 22,200 miles (35,700 kilometers) above Earth.
CBAS-2 “will provide communications relay capabilities in support of our senior leaders and combat commanders,” Space Force officials said in an emailed Friday (January 13) announcement. “The mission of CBAS-2 is to enhance existing military satellite communications capabilities and continuously transmit military data via space-based satellite relay links.”
Two Falcon Heavy side boosters landed safely at the Space Force station at Cape Canaveral eight minutes after the launch of the USSF-67 mission for the US Space Force in January. 15, 2023. (Image credit: SpaceX)
The USSF-67 will also have a Long Duration Propulsive ESPA (LDPE)-3A engine, a payload adapter that can hold up to six small satellites, according to EverydayAstronaut.com. (will open in a new tab).
Five of those slots were filled on USSF-67, the Space Force said in a statement. LDPE-3A carried two satellites, named Catcher and WASSAT, for Space Systems Command, the Space Force branch responsible for developing and maintaining the space capabilities of US fighters.
The Catcher is a prototype sensor designed to track possible hazards caused by space weather, reports EverydayAstronaut.com. WASSAT most likely means “Global Search Satellite”, which is a kind of camera/sensor designed to monitor other satellites and collect data on their trajectories and anomalies, such as changes in their orbits.
The remaining three satellites aboard LDPE-3A were developed by the Space Force’s Rapid Space Capabilities Office (SRCO), which aims to quickly and efficiently launch new extraterrestrial assets.
“The SRCO payload includes two operational prototypes for enhanced situational awareness and a working prototype encryption/encryption interface payload enabling secure space-to-ground communications,” Space Force officials wrote in a statement Friday.
The fifth SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in the hangar at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center ahead of its January flight. 15, 2023 launch. SpaceX released this photo on January 1st. 7. (Image credit: SpaceX via Twitter)
November’s USSF-44 was the first Falcon Heavy mission in more than three years. The drought was caused primarily by customer delays in preparing the payload for takeoff. The remaining three Falcon Heavy flights (in addition to USSF-44 and USSF-67) were launched in June 2019, April 2019 and February 2018.
That debut start, test flight, was remembered for a long time. He sent SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk’s red Tesla Roadster into orbit around the sun with a spacesuit-clad dummy named Starman at the wheel. According to orbital simulation studies, the car will likely continue to travel through deep space for millions of years before finally crashing into Venus or Earth.
The Falcon Heavy’s 27 Merlin first-stage engines deliver over 5 million pounds of thrust at launch, according to SpaceX’s specs page. (will open in a new tab). Heavy was the most powerful rocket in service until NASA’s Artemis 1 lunar mission lifted off on November 16.
That flight, which sent an uncrewed Orion capsule to and from lunar orbit, was the debut launch of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) mega-rocket, which produces about 8.8 million pounds of thrust.
However, SpaceX may soon reclaim the rocket power title from NASA. The company is gearing up for the first orbital test flight of its giant Starship Mars rocket, which will use 33 Raptor engines to lift off with an incredible 16 million pounds of thrust – more than any rocket ever built.
Mike Wall is the author of Out There (will open in a new tab)(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrations by Carl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (will open in a new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (will open in a new tab) or facebook (will open in a new tab).