The heavy launcher Falcon Heavy is the most powerful rocket currently available from SpaceX until Starship is fully operational.
He talked a lot about him during his first launch in 2018, boarding a Tesla Roadster piloted by Starman, the model equipped with the official space suit of SpaceX and whose pictures have been around the world.
Starman and the Space Roadster, in orbit thanks to the Falcon Heavy
The last flight (there were three in total) of the Falcon Heavy dates from June 2019 and has not been renewed since, but the ambitions and needs of SpaceForce American, the branch of the US military dedicated to space activities, will soon give it wings.
It must also be said that SpaceX is very busy developing the rocket Spaceshipeven more powerful thanks to the Super Heavy booster with 33 newer Raptor engines, which will fuel its vision to colonize the Moon and then Mars in the coming years.
Starship’s first orbital flight (unmanned) is also expected in November 2022, after various postponements… and if further delays don’t again slow down a dodgy schedule.
A new launch is on the way
In preparation for a launch that will take off from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, SpaceX has released the image of the intersection of the three boosters, which include a total of 27 Merlin engines, showing that preparations are going well.
The Falcon Heavy is the most powerful launch vehicle in operation to date (and historically behind the Saturn V and Energia) with the capacity to place a payload of up to 64 tons into orbit, double that of its nearest competitor (the ULA’s Delta IV Heavy lifter) .
USSF-44 secret mission
The launch pad will support the mission USSF-44 which we only know will consist of placing two military satellites in geostationary orbit on behalf of the Space Force. The exact date of the launch is not known, but the insertion into orbit would not take place not before October 31 the best.
For this mission, the two side boosters should be recoverable through a soft landing, while the middle booster will be abandoned and end up in the ocean.
The Falcon Heavy rocket consists of three first-stage boosters and a second stage that carries the payload.
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