7.10.2022
After a three-year wait, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy could launch again later this month
More than three years after SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket last blazed a path into orbit, the 28-engine launcher is finally set to fly again as soon as Oct. 28 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a long-delayed national security mission for the U.S. Space Force, a military spokesperson said.
The Falcon Heavy rocket mission, codenamed USSF-44, is expected to be the next launch from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy following the liftoff Wednesday of a Falcon 9 rocket and a Dragon capsule carrying a crew of four to the International Space Station. SpaceX ground teams at pad 39A will prepare the pad for the Falcon Heavy, which has a different configuration than the Falcon 9 with three Falcon rocket boosters connected together to triple the launcher’s total thrust.
The launch is expected to occur in daylight in the morning hours, but the Space Force has not officially released the launch time for the USSF-44 mission, the fourth flight of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket and the first since June 2019.
The long gap between Falcon Heavy launches has been caused by payload delays. The USSF-44 mission was originally scheduled to launch in late 2020, but has been nearly two years by issues with the Space Force payload assigned to fly on the rocket. A military spokesperson told Spaceflight Now the USSF-44 payload issues are now resolved, without offering additional details.
The Space Force has released little information about what the Falcon Heavy rocket will carry into orbit on the the USSF-44 mission.
One of the payloads assigned to launch on the USSF-44 mission is a microsatellite named TETRA 1. Built by Millennium Space Systems, a subsidiary of Boeing headquartered in El Segundo, California, the small spacecraft is designed to “prototype missions and tactics, techniques and procedures in and around geosynchronous Earth orbit,” Space Force officials said.
Military officials have released no additional details about TETRA 1’s mission.
The original procurement statement the Pentagon released to prospective launch providers for the USSF-44 mission indicated the mission would launch with two spacecraft. But that was four years ago, and the Space Force has not released any updates to the final number of satellites assigned to the flight.
In the request for proposals for the USSF-44 launch, the Air Force told prospective launch providers to assume the combined mass of the two payloads is less than 8,200 pounds, or about 3.7 metric tons. The TETRA 1 satellite alone would account for a small fraction of that mass.
The Falcon Heavy is expected to deliver the satellites on the USSF-44 mission to a high-altitude geosynchronous orbit. The rocket’s upper stage will fire several times to place the satellites into position more than 22,000 miles above the equator. The upper stage flight profile will include a coast lasting more than five hours between burns, making the USSF-44 mission one of SpaceX’s most demanding launches yet.
On the most recent Falcon Heavy mission, the rocket’s upper stage completed four burns over three-and-a-half hours on a demonstration flight sponsored by the Air Force.
The complex orbital maneuvers during the June 2019 mission for the military’s Space Test Program were required to place 24 satellite payloads into three distinct orbits. They also exercised the capabilities of the Falcon Heavy and its Merlin upper stage engine before the military entrusts the launcher with more critical, and more expensive, operational national security payloads on future flights.
SpaceX will use three newly-manufactured boosters for the USSF-44 mission. All of the boosters for the USSF-44 mission were delivered to the Florida launch base last year.
The challenging launch profile will leave no leftover propellant to recover the center core of the Falcon Heavy, according to the Space Force. The core stage will be expended on the USSF-44, while the rocket’s two side boosters will return to near-simultaneous landings in SpaceX’s recovery zone at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, according to a spokesperson for the Space Force’s Space Systems Command.
That is a change from what the Space Force previously said. A military spokesperson said in 2021 that the Falcon Heavy’s two side boosters on the USSF-44 mission would target landing on two SpaceX drone ships floating downrange in the Atlantic Ocean.
Tom Ochinero, SpaceX’s vice president of commercial sales, said last month the company plans six Falcon Heavy missions over the next 12 months, among a busy schedule of Falcon 9 missions flying at an average rate of more than once per week.
USSF-44, mission scheduled to blast off later this month, is the next Falcon Heavy on SpaceX’s schedule. A new-generation Viasat broadband satellite or the Space Force’s USSF-67 mission will likely be the next Falcon Heavy launch after USSF-44.
Viasat said last week that its first of three Viasat 3-series internet broadband satellites, booked to launch on a Falcon Heavy toward geosynchronous orbit, is scheduled to lift off before the end of the year. But industry sources said the first Viasat 3 launch, already delayed by supply chain issues that affected satellite and payload manufacturing, could delay into early 2023.
The Space Force said its USSF-67 mission, which the military says will launch into geosynchronous orbit like USSF-44, is currently scheduled for January. The military has not officially disclosed the payloads for the USSF-67 mission, but mission patches for the USSF-67 launch indicate it will carry the second spacecraft for the Space Force’s Continuous Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM, or CBAS, program. The first CBAS satellite launched in 2018, and officials said then the satellite was designed to relay communications signals between senior leaders and military combatant commanders.
Another Space Force satellite delivery mission booked on a Falcon Heavy, codenamed USSF-52, is now planned to launch in the second quarter of 2023 — between April 1 and June 30.
The other Falcon Heavy missions slated for launch in the next 12 months include the heavyweight Jupiter 3 commercial broadband satellite for EchoStar and Hughes Network Systems later in 2023.
NASA’s Psyche asteroid explorer, originally slated to launch in August of this year on a Falcon Heavy, has been grounded by software testing problems. NASA is reviewing plans to resolve the software issues, and the space agency will decide in the coming weeks whether to attempt to launch the Psyche spacecraft, still on a Falcon Heavy rocket, in the next available launch period in July 2023.
Despite the lack of Falcon Heavy launches since 2019, SpaceX has continued to win contracts to build its backlog of Falcon Heavy missions, which offer payload lift capability greater than the Falcon 9 but below that of the company’s next-generation Starship and Super Heavy rocket. The Falcon Heavy is powered by 27 Merlin main engines from three Falcon rocket cores connected together, generating 5.1 million pounds of thrust at liftoff and standing 229 feet (70 meters) tall and 40 feet (12.2 meters) wide.
The Falcon Heavy’s upper stage is mostly identical to the upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket, with a single Merlin engine.
SpaceX says the Falcon Heavy rocket is capable of placing a payload of up to 140,000 pounds, or more than 63 metric tons, into a low-altitude orbit. That figure assumes the Falcon Heavy’s boosters are burned to near fuel depletion and not recovered.
SpaceX’s most recent Falcon Heavy launch contract win was in July, when NASA awarded the company a deal worth $255 million to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in 2026.
With the Roman launch contract in hand, SpaceX now has a backlog of up to 13 Falcon Heavy rocket missions. They include the USSF-44, USSF-67, and USSF-52 missions for the U.S. Space Force slated to launch late this year and in 2023, the launch of of NASA’s Psyche asteroid probe in 2023, the launch of NASA’s Europa Clipper in 2024 to explore an icy moon of Jupiter, and the launch of the first two elements for NASA’s planned Gateway mini-space station to orbit the moon.
NASA has also contracted with SpaceX for the Falcon Heavy to launch NOAA’s GOES-U geostationary weather satellite in 2024 and two commercial resupply missions to the Gateway later in the 2020s. The status of the contract for the Gateway logistics missions is not clear. It was signed in 2020, but NASA has not yet given SpaceX authority to proceed for preparations to begin for the Gateway resupply flights.
SpaceX has won contracts for two Falcon Heavy missions to launch large geostationary internet communications satellites for Viasat and EchoStar. And a Falcon Heavy rocket is slated to launch NASA’s VIPER robotic rover toward the moon in late 2024 on a commercial lunar delivery flight managed by Astrobotic.
Quelle: SN
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Update: 29.10.2022
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SpaceX fires up huge Falcon Heavy rocket ahead of Nov. 1 launch
The powerful rocket aced a static fire test on Thursday (Oct. 27)
SpaceX performs a static fire test with its Falcon Heavy rocket at Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Oct. 27, 2022. (Image credit: SpaceX via Twitter)
SpaceX's huge Falcon Heavy rocket just breathed fire for the first time in more than three years.
The Falcon Heavy aced a "static fire" test on Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, SpaceX announced via Twitter(opens in new tab) on Thursday evening (Oct. 27).
Static fires, in which a rocket's first-stage engines are briefly ignited while the vehicle remains anchored to the ground, are a common prelaunch trial. The completion of the milestone keeps the Heavy on track to launch the USSF-44 mission for the U.S. Space Force on Tuesday (Nov. 1), SpaceX said in Thursday's tweet.
That post didn't identify a target launch time on Tuesday, but multiple sources have pegged 9:40 a.m. EDT(opens in new tab) (1340 GMT) as T-0.
A Tuesday target is a slight slip for USSF-44, which had been eyeing a "no earlier than" date of Oct. 31.
USSF-44 will be the fourth launch overall for the Falcon Heavy and its first since June 2019. The huge rocket will carry two satellites aloft for the Space Force, which has not revealed much about the payloads or their purposes.
"This launch culminates years of effort by a dedicated team comprised of mission-focused people from across the U.S. Space Force and SpaceX," Brig. Gen. Stephen Purdy, the Space Force's program executive officer for assured access to space, said in an emailed statement on Thursday.
"The Falcon Heavy is an important element of our overall lift capability, and we're very excited to be ready for launch," he added.
Thursday was a busy day for SpaceX. In addition to the Falcon Heavy static fire, the company launched 53 of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit using one of its workhorse Falcon 9 rockets.
The Starlink flight, which also featured a landing of the Falcon 9's first stage on a ship at sea, took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It was SpaceX's 49th orbital mission of 2022.
Quelle: SC
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Update: 1.11.2022
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Start von SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket mit USSF-44 Mission
Quelle: SpaceX
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Siehe auch:
https://twitter.com/Stuck4ger/status/1587446533724803072?s=20&t=fHHKOuhU8TNSH2PAjOCzvg
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Falcon Heavy rocket on the launch pad for one of SpaceX’s most complex missions
The first Falcon Heavy rocket flight since 2019 is scheduled Tuesday to kick off SpaceX’s longest-duration launch mission to date, a roughly six-hour climb into geosynchronous orbit more than 20,000 miles over the equator with a bundle of payloads for the U.S. Space Force. The powerful rocket’s two reusable side boosters will return to Cape Canaveral for landing.
The mission’s high-altitude target orbit means the Falcon Heavy’s upper stage will need to coast for some six hours through the Van Allen radiation belts before reigniting its engine and deploying the Space Force’s satellites.
The long-duration mission required SpaceX to make some changes to the Falcon Heavy rocket. The most visible modification is the addition of gray paint on the outside of the upper stage’s kerosene fuel tank, which will help ensure the fuel does not freeze as the rocket spends hours in the cold environment of space.
The launch, which the Space Force has designated USSF-44, will mark the fourth flight of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket currently flying. But it is the first Falcon Heavy mission since June 25, 2019, following a series of delays encountered by SpaceX’s customers.
The USSF-44 mission has been delayed about two years from the original schedule of late 2020. The Space Force blamed the delay on satellite-related problems.
The launch will be the first fully operational national security mission to fly on SpaceX’s heavy-lifter. The Falcon Heavy’s most recent launch in June 2019 carried 24 experimental satellites for the military and NASA on the Space Test Program-2, or STP-2, mission. The STP-2 mission was billed as a demonstration flight of the rocket before future launches with more critical national security payloads.
“We’ve worked side-by-side with SpaceX to ensure the Falcon Heavy meets all our requirements and has a successful launch,” said Walt Lauderdale, the Space Force’s mission director for the USSF-44 launch. “This will be the first Falcon Heavy launch in over three years and we’re excited to get these payloads to space. This launch is an important milestone and continues a robust partnership that is cementing a capability that will serve the nation for years to come.”
“This launch culminates years of effort by a dedicated team comprised of mission-focused people from across the U.S. Space Force and SpaceX. The Falcon Heavy is an important element of our overall lift capability, and we’re very excited to be ready for launch,” said Brig. Gen. Stephen Purdy, the Space Force’s program executive officer for assured access to space.
The Space Force has released little information about the satellites launching on the Falcon Heavy rocket.
There are two payloads stacked on top of the other inside the Falcon Heavy’s nose cone. One is called the Shepherd Demonstration, and the other is the Space Force’s second Long Duration Propulsive ESPA, or LDPE 2, spacecraft, itself hosting six payloads — three that will remain attached to the spacecraft and three that will deploy from LPDE 2 to perform their own missions.
The fully assembled Falcon Heavy rocket rolled out to Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Monday afternoon, riding a transporter the quarter-mile distance from the hangar to the launch pad. SpaceX teams planned to raise the Falcon Heavy vertical on pad 39A overnight in preparation for liftoff Tuesday during a 30-minute window opening at 9:41 a.m. EDT (1341 GMT).
Forecasters predict a 90% chance of good weather for launch Tuesday, with light winds and scattered clouds predicted. “The primary weather concern will be a rogue Atlantic shower or enhanced cumulus brushing the coast,” the Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron wrote in an outlook issued Monday.
After receiving its supply of kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants, the Falcon Heavy’s three first stage boosters will fire their 27 main engines and throttle up to produce 5.1 million pounds of thrust, around twice the power of any other operational rocket in the world. The rocket will head due east from the launch site, arcing over the Atlantic Ocean before shedding its two side-mounted boosters two-and-a-half minutes into the flight.
The side boosters will pulse their cold gas thrusters and reignite three engines each to reverse course and begin returning to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for landing at SpaceX’s two recovery zones about 9 miles (15 kilometers) south of pad 39A. The boosters will aim for near-simultaneous vertical landings less than 10 minutes after liftoff.
The core stage, which will throttle back its engines for the first phase of the flight, will fire longer before jettisoning to fall into the Atlantic. It will not be recovered on the USSF-44 mission. An upper stage engine will finish the task of placing the USSF-44 payloads into an equator-hugging geosynchronous orbit some 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth.
The rocket will release the LDPE 2 and Shepherd Demonstration satellites into orbit to conclude the Falcon Heavy launch sequence. The satellites will orbit will orbit in lock-step with Earth’s rotation, a feature that makes geosynchronous orbit a popular location for military communications, early warning, and reconnaissance satellites.
Most satellites heading to geosynchronous orbit get dropped off by their launcher in an egg-shaped transfer orbit. That requires the spacecraft to use its own propulsion resources to circularize at an operational altitude over the equator.
Some launches deploy their satellites directly into geosynchronous orbit. The Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets built by United Launch Alliance, a SpaceX rival in the U.S. launch industry, have accomplished this feat before. But the launch Tuesday will be SpaceX’s first attempt to place payloads directly into geosynchronous orbit.
SpaceX tested its long duration coast capability on previous flights, including the Falcon Heavy launch on the STP-2 mission in 2019, which lasted three-and-a-half hours from liftoff through the final burn of the upper stage stage engine. In December 2019, SpaceX performed a long duration six-hour coast experiment on a Falcon 9 rocket upper stage following launch of a resupply mission to the International Space Station.
The Shepherd Demonstration satellite on the USSF-44 mission “hosts payloads that mature technologies and accelerate risk reduction efforts to inform programs of record,” the Space Force said. A military spokesperson said the Shepherd Demonstration satellite carries multiple Space Force payloads, and is based on an “ESPA ring,” a circular structure with attachment ports for experiments and instruments.
The Space Force spokesperson declined to provide additional details on the Shepherd Demonstration mission in response to questions from Spaceflight Now.
The LDPE 2 spacecraft was built by Northrop Grumman, and is similar to the LDPE 1 satellite launched in December 2021 on a ULA Atlas 5 rocket. LDPE 2 hosts six payloads on circumferential ports, apparently similar to the design of the Shepherd Demonstration spacecraft, and has its own propulsion system to maneuver in space. The spacecraft is capable of releasing small satellites into orbit, and a Space Force spokesperson confirmed to Spaceflight Now that three of the LDPE 2 payloads will separate as free flyers in geosynchronous orbit.
One of the small “subsatellites” riding on LDPE 2 is believed to be Tetra 1, a small microsatellite built by Millennium Space Systems, a Boeing subsidiary. Military officials said in a 2020 statement that the Tetra 1 satellite was assigned to launch on the USSF-44 mission, and is designed to “prototype missions and tactics, techniques and procedures in and around geosynchronous Earth orbit.”
The LDPE 2 host spacecraft may also carry two Lockheed Martin CubeSats on a demonstration mission to test maneuvering and navigation capabilities for future small satellites in geosynchronous orbit. The two LINUSS smallsats — short for Lockheed Martin In-space Upgrade Satellite System — were assigned to fly on the USSF-44 mission as of early 2021, according to an orbital debris assessment reportpublished on the Federal Communications Commission’s website.
The LINUSS A1 and A2 satellites, owned by Lockheed Martin and built by Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, are designed to separate from the LDPE 2 spacecraft about two months after launch, then perform maneuvers using their miniature propulsion systems. After separating to a distance of several hundred miles from one another, one of the satellites will approach its companion to a range of just 160 feet (about 50 meters).
The demonstrations will test capabilities that could be used in future satellite servicing missions, or on inspector spacecraft that could approach other objects in orbit. the LINUSS mission will also demonstrate on-board high-performance image processing, smallsat propulsion, inertial measurement units, machine vision, 3D-printed components, and reconfigurable flight software, Lockheed Martin said. The company said it developed the LINUSS mission using internal funding.
The LINUSS CubeSats are about 8 inches by 8 inches by 12 inches, and weigh about 47 pounds (21.5 kilograms) at launch.
Spaceflight Now asked the Space Force last week if the Tetra 1 spacecraft and the two LINUSS satellites remain on the USSF-44 mission, and whether they account for the three payloads that will separate from the LDPE 2 spacecraft. A Space Force spokesperson declined to confirm whether the three satellites are still assigned to the USSF-44 launch.
The Space Force says the LDPE program allows the military to more affordably send small and secondary payloads into geosynchronous orbit, helping accelerate the service’s “pivot to new, more resilient space architectures.”
“This capability has broad potential to fill capability gaps in our space systems architecture and provide helpful services for our mission partners with frequent and low-cost access to orbit,” said Brig. Gen. Tim Sejba, Space System’s Command’s program executive officer for space domain awareness and combat power.
“LDPE 2 hosts a variety of payloads that advance technology concerning communications and space weather sensing,” a Space Force spokesperson said.
The next military mission to fly on a Falcon Heavy rocket, named USSF-67, will launch the LDPE 3 spacecraft and a Space Force communications satellite in tandem. That launch is scheduled for January, and will use the same Falcon Heavy side boosters flown on the USSF-44 mission, assuming a successful recovery on the landing zones at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the Space Force said.
Quelle: SN