With a thunderous roar, SpaceX launched a triple-core Falcon Heavy rocket for the US Space Force on Sunday, propelling a military communications satellite into space along with a maneuverable payload carrier housing five technology demo packages. classified.
Generating more than 5 million pounds of thrust from 27 Merlin engines powering the rocket’s central core and twin boosters, Falcon Heavy lifted off from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 5:56 p.m. EST, arcing toward east over the Atlantic Ocean.
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The huge rocket, second only to the much more expensive one from NASA. Space Launch System Moon Rocket On takeoff power, put on a spectacular show for spaceport workers, area residents, and tourists, soaring into the glow of the setting sun atop a brilliant flaming exhaust jet.
It was only the fifth flight of a Falcon Heavy, which debuted in 2018 with the launch of a convertible car tesla into space with a mannequin in a pressure suit behind the wheel.
While the Heavy is the most powerful operational rocket in SpaceX’s inventory, it will be dwarfed by the company’s fully reusable Super Heavy/Starship, which is preparing for an initial test flight in the coming months from Boca Chica, Texas.
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If it works as planned, the mammoth Super Heavy will generate 16 million pounds of thrust, twice that of NASA’s SLS and three times that of the Falcon Heavy.
But the triple-core Falcon Heavy, making its second national security launch, made a perfect ascent into space on Sunday.
The two side boosters fired for two and a half minutes before dropping and flying back to side-by-side synchronized landings at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Heralded as usual by shotgun-like sonic booms, the boosters first flew in a Space Force Falcon Heavy last november and both will be used again in a future mission.
The central core booster fired for an additional minute and a half before it also fell, leaving the remainder of the climb to the Falcon Heavy’s second stage. Unlike the side boosters, the core stage used all of its propellant as planned to complete the ascent out of the lower atmosphere, and recovery was not possible.
The second stage used its unique vacuum-optimized Merlin engine to achieve an initial parking orbit before heading into the target geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above the equator. But as usual with many military releases, details were not released.
The Space Systems Command said in a pre-launch news release that the Falcon Heavy was carrying two satellites for the USSF-67 mission: a military communications relay station and a deployable satellite housing five technology demonstration payloads.
Continuous Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM (CBAS)-2 is designed to operate in geosynchronous orbit “to provide communications relay capabilities in support of our senior leaders and combatant commanders,” the statement said. “CBAS-2’s mission is to augment existing military satellite communication capabilities and continuously transmit military data via space-based satellite relay links.”
The second satellite, ESPA Long Duration Propellant (LDPE)-3A, is a payload carrier equipped with its own propulsion and navigation systems “to rapidly place multiple and diverse payloads into orbit and provide critical data to inform and influence in future US Space Force programs.”
For the USSF-67 mission, housed payloads included operational prototypes for “enhanced situational awareness” and encryption technology for space-to-ground communications. Two other payloads will presumably test space weather sensors and possibly test equipment to monitor other satellites.
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The LDPE is “a space freight train for geosynchronous Earth orbit experiments and prototypes that can manifest on any national security space launch mission with available mass margin,” said Col. Joseph Roth, director of innovation and creation for Space Systems Command prototypes.
“LDPE’s modular design and standard interfaces provide the perfect platform to host a wide variety of payloads in many mission areas.”
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