{"id":13134,"date":"2019-06-23T23:14:24","date_gmt":"2019-06-23T15:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/falcon-heavy-to-flex-muscles-on-demanding-demo-launch-for-u-s-air-force\/"},"modified":"2019-06-23T23:14:24","modified_gmt":"2019-06-23T15:14:24","slug":"falcon-heavy-to-flex-muscles-on-demanding-demo-launch-for-u-s-air-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/falcon-heavy-to-flex-muscles-on-demanding-demo-launch-for-u-s-air-force\/","title":{"rendered":"Falcon Heavy to flex muscles on demanding demo launch for U.S. Air Force"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SpaceX\u2019s Falcon Heavy rocket is lifted inside the hangar at launch pad 39A during final assembly. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On its third flight Monday night, SpaceX\u2019s Falcon Heavy rocket will fly to three different orbits with two dozen spacecraft on a mission set to last more than six hours, prompting SpaceX founder Elon Musk to declare it the company\u2019s \u201cmost difficult launch ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

The triple-core rocket, made by combining three Falcon 9 boosters on a single launcher, is set for liftoff from pad 39A at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a four-hour launch window opening at 11:30 p.m. EDT Monday (0330 GMT Tuesday).<\/p>\n

There is a 70 percent chance of favorable weather during the overnight launch window, which officials selected to satisfy the payloads\u2019 thermal requirements on their ride into orbit.<\/p>\n

It will be the first night launch by SpaceX\u2019s Falcon Heavy, the world\u2019s most powerful rocket currently in service. The rocket\u2019s 27 Merlin main engines will drive the rocket off the ground with 5.1 million pounds of thrust, nearly twice the thrust of any other operational launch vehicle.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, the rocket\u2019s two side boosters will come back to Cape Canaveral minutes after liftoff. The fiery night launch and landings, coupled with the roar from the Falcon Heavy\u2019s 27 main engines and crackling sonic booms upon return of the boosters, will be a can\u2019t-miss spectacle for space enthusiasts and local residents, weather permitting.<\/p>\n

SpaceX completed a pre-launch engine test-firing Wednesday night at pad 39A, then returned the rocket to its hangar Friday to receive its 24 satellite payloads. The research and weather observation satellites come from the U.S. Air Force, NASA, NOAA, universities, international partners and non-profit organizations.<\/p>\n

The Air Force is overseeing the launch through the Defense Department\u2019s Space Test Program, a unit that arranges rides to space for the military\u2019s experimental satellites.<\/p>\n

The mission is designated STP-2.<\/p>\n

\u201cSTP-2 is the government\u2019s first launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy vehicle, and is one of the most challenging missions the Space and Missile Systems Center has ever launched,\u201d said Col. Robert Bongiovi, director of the launch enterprise systems directorate at SMC. \u201cWe\u2019re putting 24 research and development satellites into three separate orbits, with a first-ever four engine start and burn of the second stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elon Musk, SpaceX\u2019s founder and CEO, agrees, calling the STP-2 mission SpaceX\u2019s \u201cmost difficult launch ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery launch is kind of unique, and this one\u2019s definitely unique since there are so many deployments in many different orbits,\u201d said Mike Marlow, the STP-2 mission manager from the Space Test Program at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico.<\/p>\n

SpaceX has never fired an upper stage engine more than three times in space as part of a rocket\u2019s primary mission.<\/p>\n

The STP-2 mission has a total financial value of about $750 million, including the satellites and the SpaceX launch service procured by the Air Force, according to Marlow. That\u2019s a rough estimate, however, because the satellites come from multiple government and international institutions who track finances in different ways.<\/p>\n

Falcon Heavy to launch into three distinct orbits<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Over the weekend, SpaceX workers were removing a test version of the Falcon Heavy\u2019s payload fairing, which was installed to gather acoustic data during the static fire test. The mission\u2019s satellite payloads, already encapsulated inside a flight-worthy fairing, were set to be mated to the Falcon Heavy ground crews return the rocket to pad 39A ahead of Monday night\u2019s launch.<\/p>\n

After riding a transporter up the ramp to pad 39A, the Falcon Heavy will be raised vertical for final countdown preparations and fueling Monday evening.<\/p>\n

A computer-controlled countdown sequencer will oversee the loading nearly 3 million pounds of super-chilled kerosene and liquid oxygen into the Falcon Heavy\u2019s three first stage boosters and upper stage.<\/p>\n

Following final steering checks and pressurization of the rocket\u2019s propellant tanks, computers will give the command for the Falcon Heavy to ignite its engines in the final 10 seconds of the countdown. Hold-down clamps at the base of the rocket will release to allow the Falcon Heavy to climb into the sky.<\/p>\n

Turning due east from Florida\u2019s Space Coast, the Falcon Heavy will arc downrange over the Atlantic Ocean and exceed the speed of sound in about one minute.<\/p>\n

Around two-and-a-half minutes into the launch, the side boosters will shut down and separate from the Falcon Heavy\u2019s center core to begin a series of propulsive maneuvers guiding the twin rockets back to Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.<\/p>\n

Coming back from the edge of space, the rockets will target nearly simultaneous touchdowns at the landing site, around 9 miles (15 kilometers) south of pad 39A.<\/p>\n

Monday night\u2019s mission will be the first time SpaceX has landed two rocket boosters at the same time at night. The side boosters both flew on the previous Falcon Heavy mission with the Arabsat 6A commercial communications satellite April 11, when they landed back at Cape Canaveral.<\/p>\n

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The side boosters set for launch on the Air Force\u2019s STP-2 mission previously launched and landed April 11 on a Falcon Heavy mission with the Arabsat 6A communications satellite. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAs long as there are no clouds, but having been down there for a couple, the recoveries back on land, they do end up being a spectacular sight coming back to the landing zone,\u201d said Walter Lauderdale, the STP-2 mission director from SMC\u2019s Falcon systems and operations division.<\/p>\n

After release of the side boosters, the Falcon Heavy\u2019s center core will throttle up its engines to full power. The core stage will operate at partial power for the first couple of minutes of the mission to conserve fuel.<\/p>\n

Around three-and-a-half minutes after liftoff, the core stage will turn off its engines and separate to begin its own controlled descent to SpaceX\u2019s offshore drone ship positioned nearly 770 miles (1,240 kilometers) east of Cape Canaveral. The recovery vessel is parked farther downrange than for any previous SpaceX mission, and the Falcon Heavy\u2019s core stage will come down faster than any booster before.<\/p>\n

The core stage will aim for landing on the drone ship around 10 minutes into the mission, shortly after the touchdown of the Falcon Heavy\u2019s side boosters. The core stage flying Monday night is a new booster.<\/p>\n

The core stage from the inaugural Falcon Heavy launch in February 2018 crashed on landing, and the center booster from the second Falcon Heavy mission in April made a successful touchdown, but tipped over before it could be secured for return to port.<\/p>\n

But the mission will just be beginning by the time the Falcon Heavy\u2019s three boosters make it back to Earth.<\/p>\n

The rocket\u2019s second stage, powered by a single Merlin engine, will ignite four times on the lengthy flight.<\/p>\n

The first burn will heave the mission\u2019s 8,157-pound (3,700-kilogram) payload stack into low Earth orbit, where 13 satellites will deploy from adapters on the Falcon Heavy\u2019s upper stage.<\/p>\n

The first orbital target for the STP-2 mission ranges in altitude between about 186 miles (300 kilometers) and 534 miles (860 kilometers). The first orbit will have an inclination, or tilt, of 28.5 degrees to the equator.<\/p>\n

The first of the payloads to release from the Falcon Heavy will be Oculus-ASR, a microsatellite developed by students at Michigan Technological University in partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory. Oculus-ASR will test the ability of ground-based observers to determine the orientation and configuration of a satellite in orbit using unresolved imagery.<\/p>\n

According to Marlow, Oculus-ASR will separate from the launcher around 13 minutes after liftoff, followed by the ejection of 12 CubeSats.<\/p>\n

A second firing by the Falcon Heavy\u2019s upper stage engine will steer the rocket into a circular orbit around 447 miles (720 kilometers) above Earth, with an inclination at 24 degrees, closer to the equator.<\/p>\n

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Artist\u2019s concept of the STP-2 payloads on the Falcon Heavy\u2019s upper stage. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Six weather satellites developed by NOAA and Taiwan\u2019s space agency will separate from the launcher in the 447-mile-high orbit, along with several other microsatellites.<\/p>\n

The Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate-2, or COSMIC-2, mission will form a weather observation network collecting data on temperature, pressure, density and water vapor at various layers in Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Other satellites set for deployment on the mission\u2019s second orbit include the Orbital Test Bed spacecraft built by General Atomics. The Orbital Test Bed, or OTB, mission hosts several payloads, including the Deep Space Atomic Clock experiment from NASA, which will test a new type of hyper-accurate atomic clock that could make it easier for deep space probes to navigate.<\/p>\n

Another package attached to the OTB satellite carries the cremated remains of 152 people, including the late astronaut Bill Pogue and space journalist and historian Frank Sietzen. The payload, called \u201cHeritage Flight\u201d and arranged by Celestis, will remain in orbit with the OTB spaceraft for around 25 years.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s Green Propellant Infusion Mission is also timed to deploy in the 447-mile orbit. Built by Ball Aerospace with a propulsion system from Aerojet Rocketdyne, the mission will test a new type of non-toxic \u201cgreen\u201d propellant that could be used on future satellites to replace hydrazine, a caustic fuel commonly used on spacecraft because it can be stored for years at room temperature.<\/p>\n

A satellite named NPSAT 1 developed at the Naval Postgraduate School will also separate in the Falcon Heavy\u2019s second orbit. NPSAT 1 carries two instruments from the Naval Research Laboratory to measure electron cloud densities in Earth\u2019s ionosphere, a layer high above Earth that affects long-range radio communications. Engineers will also use the microsatellite to test a radiation-tolerant computer processor, experimental solar cells, and low-cost memory devices, rate sensors and a commercial digital camera.<\/p>\n

Georgia Tech\u2019s suitcase-sized Prox-1 microsatellite is the other satellite slated for deployment in the STP-2 mission\u2019s second orbit. Prox-1, also funded through an Air Force Research Laboratory grant, will test proximity operations and in-orbit inspection techniques after releasing a daughter satellite named LightSail 2, a crowd-funded CubeSat from the Planetary Society designed to demonstrate the propulsion capability of a solar sail, which harnesses pressure from sunlight for thrust.<\/p>\n

After dropping dropping off the microsatellites, the Falcon Heavy\u2019s upper stage will reignite two more times to reach a higher altitude and higher inclination for deployment of the final payload \u2014 the Air Force Research Laboratory\u2019s Demonstration and Science Experiments, or DSX, spacecraft.<\/p>\n