If all goes according to plan, the two side boosters will come back to Earth shortly after liftoff on Saturday, making vertical touchdowns at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which is next door to KSC. The USSF-67 core booster has not flown before. The two side boosters for USSF-67 will be launching for the second time they also flew on USSF-44, Space Force officials said. The central booster is topped with a payload-carrying upper stage.įalcon Heavy first stages are reusable, like those of the Falcon 9.

The Falcon Heavy consists of three modified SpaceX Falcon 9 first stages, which are strapped together. NASA picks SpaceX Falcon Heavy to launch 1st Gateway station pieces to the moon Facts about SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket SpaceX Falcon Heavy will launch NASA's Europa Clipper mission to icy Jupiter moon Among them are 'two operational prototypes for enhanced situational awareness and an operational prototype crypto/interface encryption payload providing secure space-to-ground communications capability,' Space Force officials said in an emailed statement on Friday (Jan. LDPE-3A will carry five Space Force payloads on USSF-67. Also flying Saturday is a rideshare spacecraft called Long Duration Propulsive ESPA (LDPE)-3A, a payload adapter that can hold up to six small satellites, according to. The main payload is a military communications satellite called Continuous Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM 2, which the Falcon Heavy will send to geostationary orbit, about 22,200 miles (35,700 kilometers) above Earth. We do know a bit about the coming flight, however. Like USSF-44, USSF-67 is a classified mission. The 40-month gap was due primarily to delays in getting customer payloads ready, according to space industry analysts. But the rocket didn't lift off again until November of last year, on the USSF- 44 mission for the Space Force. The Falcon Heavy launched again in April 2019 and June 2019, sending operational satellites aloft each time. The burly rocket debuted in February 2018 with a memorable test flight that sent SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster into orbit around the sun, with a spacesuit-clad mannequin named Starman in the driver's seat. Sunday's launch will be the fifth overall for the Falcon Heavy. SpaceX posted this photo on Twitter on Jan. SpaceX's fifth Falcon Heavy rocket is seen here in a hangar at NASA's Kennedy Space Center ahead of a planned Jan.

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