Tag: Falcon Heavy

SpaceX Stands Down Both Falcon Heavy, Falcon 9 Launches

The Orlando Sentinel  reports that SpaceX “is standing down from attempting to launch its powerhouse Falcon Heavy for now, citing the need for ‘systems checkouts’ while weather would have been an issue the next couple of days.” It has already “delayed a Falcon 9 launch as well.” After delaying a Sunday attempt “to launch Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A because of weather and then scrubbing a Monday night attempt less than an hour before its planned liftoff because of a ‘ground side issue,’ SpaceX had announced it would try again Wednesday.” But late Tuesday, “it called off those plans.” USSF-52 is a mission “to send up the Space Force’s secretive mini shuttle, the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle built by Boeing, on what would be the spacecraft’s seventh trip to orbit.” The classified missions “have sent it on longer and longer duration flights each time, having spent nearly 909 days in space the last time around.” Weather was also the reason “it called off both a late Tuesday attempt and a planned Wednesday attempt to launch a Falcon 9 from nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 on another Starlink mission.”
Full Story (Orlando Sentinel)

SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket Launch of X-37B Space Plane Delayed

SPACE reported that a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket “is poised to launch the X-37B space plane for the US Space Force on Monday evening (Dec. 11) after a one-day delay due to weather, and you can likely watch the action live.” Liftoff of the Falcon Heavy “is scheduled to occur from Launch Complex-39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, during a 10-minute window that opens at 8:14 p.m. EST (0114 GMT Dec. 12).” The upcoming launch “will be the seventh launch to date for the reusable X-37B space plane its first-ever ride on a Falcon Heavy, which could have consequences for its coming orbital mission.” Five of the six X-37B launches “to date have employed United Launch Alliance Atlas V rockets, with one other using a SpaceX Falcon 9.”
Full Story (SPACE)

NASA Using SpaceX Falcon Heavy to Launch Psyche Mission

The Orlando (FL) Sentinel reports NASA is using SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket “for the first time, aiming to send a probe named Psyche to an asteroid with the same name this week.” The Psyche probe is “set to lift off from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A as early as 10:16 a.m. Thursday, although weather forecasts show only a 20% chance for good conditions. … The $700 million satellite managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory aims to unlock the asteroid Psyche’s secrets, which scientists suspect is metal-rich.”
Full Story (Orlando Sentinel)

SpaceX Falcon Heavy Lifts Off Following Scrubbed Mission

UPI reports that SpaceX launched a Falcon Heavy rocket on Sunday night from Kennedy Space Center’s pad 39A, loaded with a payload of competitor ViaSat-3 Americas broadband Internet satellite, as well as satellites by Astranis and Gravity Space. The mission “was scheduled to launch Friday evening but the mission was aborted with less than a minute left in the countdown.” Unlike most SpaceX missions, neither the side boosters “nor the core of the Falcon Heavy rocket will be recovered as ‘a lot of extra performance’ was required to deliver ViaSat-3’s 13,000-pound satellite into geostationary orbit above the Earth, Atticus Vadera, propulsion engineer with SpaceX, said during the live broadcast.” ViaSat-3 Americas satellite “is part of its network that seeks to provide satellite Internet the world over and is a competitor to SpaceX’s own Starlink Internet satellite constellation.”
Full Story (UPI)

 

Video

ViaSat-3 Americas Mission
On Sunday, April 30 at 8:26 p.m. ET, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy launched the ViaSat-3 Americas mission from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
(SpaceX; YouTube)

US Spaceplane to Return to Orbit on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy

FlightGlobal reports that the secretive “spaceplane” operated by the US Space Force (USSF) “will return to orbit for its seventh long-endurance mission, this time aboard the world’s largest commercial rocket.” The USSF “announced the Boeing X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) will launch on 7 December from Cape Canaveral, Florida for the ultra-long endurance spacecraft’s seventh mission.” The announcement “comes almost exactly one year after the X-37B landed from its sixth flight mission in November 2022.” That flight, which “launched in May 2020, lasted 908 days and carried a solar energy experiment for the US Navy and a satellite for the US Air Force Academy.” The goal “of the latest orbital flight, dubbed X-37B Mission 7 or OTV-7, is to experiment with new space technologies aimed at furthering the ‘safe, stable, and secure operations in space for all users,’ the USSF says.”
Full Story (FlightGlobal)

Falcon Heavy Launch Scheduled for Late Wednesday

The Orlando (FL) Sentinel reports that SpaceX is “rolling out its powerful Falcon Heavy for a late-night launch Wednesday that will feature double sonic booms of its returning boosters that might shake up Central Florida.” The rocket “is one of the most powerful available for Space Coast launches, essentially three Falcon 9 rockets strapped together that produce 5.1 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.” The payload for this mission “is a telecom satellite for Hughes Network Systems called the EchoStar Jupiter 3 aiming for liftoff from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A during a 99-minute launch window that opens at 11:04 p.m.” A backup opportunity “falls during the same window Thursday.” Space Launch Delta 45’s weather squadron “predicts an 85% chance for good weather Wednesday, and 60% if the backup window is needed on Thursday.”
Full Story (Orlando Sentinel)

SpaceX Awaits FAA Approval for Starship Orbital Test Flight

The Miami Herald reports that after “running through a successful test fire this month, SpaceX is set to fly its massive Starship and Super Heavy rocket, and is just waiting on the Federal Aviation Administration for the green light, according to one company official.” The company said the static fire test in which 31 of the rocket’s 33 engines performed as expected was the first and only necessary step towards an orbital test flight.
Full Story (Miami Herald)

Space Force Launches GPS III SV06 Aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket

Inside Defense reports that the “Space Force successfully launched another Global Positioning System III-series satellite from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL, the morning of Jan. 18 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.” The GPS III satellites, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, “provide up to three times greater accuracy and an eightfold increase in anti-jamming capabilities compared to earlier systems, Space Systems Command said in a press release.” In the release, Program Executive Officer for Military Communications & PNT Directorate Cordell DeLaPena Jr. said, “With the GPS III SV06 launch, GPS has accomplished another step towards Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT)’s overall mission of modernizing capabilities for our civilians and military users while maintaining the performance and resiliency of our existing architecture.
Full Story (Inside Defense)

 
 
 

 Video

A SpaceX Falcon 9 launches the GPS III Space Vehicle 06 mission January 18th at 7:24 a.m. ET
(SpaceX; YouTube)

SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launches Classified Mission for US Space Force

Fox Business reports SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket “lifted off for the first time this year on Sunday” at 5:56 p.m. ET, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission, called USSF-67, delivered “a classified military payload to orbit for the United States Space Force.”  Approximately eight minutes after launch, the rocket’s “two side boosters disconnected and landed simultaneously at Cape Canaveral’s Landing Zones 1 and 2,” marking “the 163rd and 164th successful landings of an orbital-class rocket.” The mission also marked the fifth successful flight for SpaceX’s powerful Falcon Heavy rocket.
Full Story (Fox Business)
 
 
 

 

 Video

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy launches from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Sunday, January 15, at 5:56 p.m. EST
(SpaceX; YouTube)

Next SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch Could Happen as Soon as Next Week

The Orlando Sentinel reports that for sheer rocket entertainment, “space fans can get excited whenever SpaceX’s powerful Falcon Heavy launches, and that next opportunity could come next week.” Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex “posted to its website an event to view the previously announced USSF-67 mission for the Space Force using the rocket that produces 5.1 million pounds of thrust on liftoff, launching from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A.” The attraction offers “one of the closest locations to view the launch through an extra-cost package admission, and the listing targets no earlier than Thursday, Jan. 12, although neither SpaceX or the Space Force have yet to announce a target date or time beyond the intention to fly in January.”
Full Story (Orlando Sentinel – Subscription Publication)

SpaceX Plans Starship Launch as Early as Monday

The Orlando Sentinel reports that SpaceX doesn’t plan a launch pad run-through for its Starship and Super Heavy rocket, which has a target date of April 17 for its suborbital test launch from Boca Chica, Texas, although the company has yet to receive FAA approval. Under the flight plan, the booster will launch east over the Gulf of Mexico, separate, and make a water, while “Starship will then progress on a suborbital path around more than 2/3 of the planet before also attempting a water landing near Hawaii.”
Full Story (Orlando Sentinel)

SpaceX Falcon Heavy Could Launch This Month After Three-Year Wait

Spaceflight Now reports, “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 mission “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.” Spaceflight Now adds that the delay between Falcon Heavy launches is due to a lack of payloads for the rocket.
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)

NASA Selects SpaceX Falcon Heavy for Next Space Telescope Launch

The Orlando (FL) Sentinel reports that with the “success of the James Webb Space Telescope images released this month, NASA is gearing up to send up yet more powerful hardware to capture next-generation images of the universe, and has chosen SpaceX for its ride.” The mission will see the “company’s Falcon Heavy launching the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to space from Kennedy Space Center on a mission targeting liftoff in October 2026.” The space telescope’s launch “was dubbed a top priority by the 2010 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey.” The telescope was previously known as the Wide Field InfraRed Survey Telescope.
Full Story (Orlando Sentinel – Subscription Publication)

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Rocket Readies for Halloween Launch

CNET News reports, “The Falcon Heavy mission dubbed USSF 44 is the next launch on deck for pad 39-A at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, currently set for Oct. 31 at 9:44 a.m. ET (6:44 a.m. PT). The Space Force describes it as a classified mission.” The Falcon Heavy is the most powerful rocket ever launched, and will remain so until the Artemis I lifts off as scheduled in November of this year.
Full Story (CNET News)