SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy rocket launch in nearly two years has entered the final stage of preparations: testing, delivery, and assembly of flight hardware.
The vast majority of the challenges in building and launching Falcon Heavy, consisting of five main elements, come from the rocket’s three first stage boosters – each more or less equivalent to a single-core Falcon 9 booster. Falcon Heavy’s dual side amps are by far the most visually recognizable sign of that similar but different nature thanks to the need for aerodynamic nose cones rather than the normal intermediate stage of a Falcon booster (a hollow cylinder).
While easily identifiable, the middle core is the most technically Falcon Heavy-specific part of SpaceX’s partially reusable heavy lift rocket, requiring a unique airframe over side cores, which are essentially Falcon 9 boosters with a few key add-ons. U.S. It’s one of those Falcon Heavy side amps that was seen over the road from SpaceX’s test facilities to a Florida launch pad on Tuesday, January 26.
For reasons unknown, although SpaceX currently has two repurposed Falcon Heavy side amps that flew a second time on the US Air Force’s own STP-2 mission, the company has manufactured all-new boosters – likely at the request of the US military – for the fourth missile. launch. Rebadged from AFSPC-44 to USSF-44, that mission SpaceX will see its first-ever direct-to-GEO launch, nominally launching from a several-ton mystery satellite directly into geostationary orbit (GEO).
The main challenge of direct-to-GEO launches is the need for the top stage of a particular rocket to kiss in orbit for hours and then relight after that several-hour coastal period. The direct launch profile also requires more delta-V (propellant) than alternative transfer trajectories (GTOs) – propellant that must be launched into orbit in addition to the customer’s payload. That requires the use of extremely large and / or efficient missiles, which is why SpaceX is launching the USSF-44 with Falcon Heavy instead of a much cheaper and simpler Falcon 9.
Unlike any other direct-to-GEO launch in history, Falcon Heavy Flight 4 will (hopefully) be the first time a missile launches a payload into geostationary orbit while still recovering much of its initial stage . After launch, the Falcon Heavy side boosters B1064 and B1064 will attempt to land the first-ever twin drone ship at sea, while the missile’s custom-built core will be deliberately used. According to CEO Elon Musk, that sacrifice-center-core The configuration theoretically allows Falcon Heavy to achieve ~ 90% of its replaceable performance while still restoring two otherwise reusable boosters.
Since the appearance of the first USSF-44 side booster in Louisiana, at least one other booster (most likely the mission’s second side booster) has been seen at SpaceX’s development facilities in McGregor, Texas and may have already completed its own round of static fire acceptance . to test. Given the three-month gap between the static fire from the first USSF-44 side booster and the appearance of a side booster in transit, there is a distant possibility that the booster spotted on January 26 was the second of two side boosters to be shipped east , but that’s unlikely given how many Falcon boosters stick out on the road.
Finally, assuming the static fire acceptance test of the second USSF-44 side amplifier went well, the only major Falcon Heavy-specific hardware that SpaceX needs to ship from its Hawthorne, CA headquarters is the central core B1066. A payload top stage and fairing will also have to pass acceptance tests and go to Florida, but both will likely be standard Falcon 9 hardware, minimizing uncertainty on small batches.
If SpaceX delivers B1066 to McGregor in the next two weeks, the central core should be ready for shipment to Florida in March or April, giving SpaceX two or three months to integrate static fire and prepare Falcon Heavy for its fourth launch. According to the latest official information from the US military, the USSF-44 will not be launched until (NET) “late spring 2021,” which probably means the end of May or June.