The heavy launcher Falcon Heavy is the most powerful rocket currently available from SpaceX, until Starship is fully operational.
He had a lot of talk about him during his first launch in 2018 by boarding a Tesla Roadster piloted by Starman, the model equipped with the official space suit of SpaceX, and whose images have been around the world.
Starman and the Space Roadster, in orbit thanks to Falcon Heavy
The last flight (there were three in all) of Falcon Heavy dates from June 2019 and has not been renewed since, but the ambitions and needs of the SpaceForce American, the branch of the US army devoted to space activities, will soon give it wings.
It must also be said that SpaceX is very busy developing the rocket Starshipeven more powerful thanks to the Super Heavy booster with 33 more recent Raptor engines, and which must feed its vision of colonizing the Moon and then Mars in the years to come.
Starship’s first orbital flight (uncrewed) is also expected in November 2022, after various postponements… and if further delays do not once again slow down a devious 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 junction of the three boosters, comprising a total of 27 Merlin engines, thus showing that the preparations are going good train.
Falcon Heavy is to date the most powerful launcher in service (and historically behind Saturn V and Energia) with the capacity to place a payload of up to 64 tonnes in orbit, twice as much as its closest competitor (the launcher ULA’s Delta IV Heavy).
USSF-44 Secret Mission
The launcher 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 precise date of the firing is not known but the putting 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 carrying the payload.
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