{"id":15546,"date":"2016-05-03T21:54:45","date_gmt":"2016-05-03T13:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-undecided-on-payload-for-first-falcon-heavy-flight\/"},"modified":"2016-05-03T21:54:45","modified_gmt":"2016-05-03T13:54:45","slug":"spacex-undecided-on-payload-for-first-falcon-heavy-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-undecided-on-payload-for-first-falcon-heavy-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX undecided on payload for first Falcon Heavy flight"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Artist's
Artist\u2019s concept of SpaceX\u2019s Falcon Heavy rocket. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As SpaceX engineers put together the first model of the company\u2019s new Falcon Heavy rocket, officials have not ruled out flying a paying customer\u2019s satellite aboard the maiden flight of the humongous launcher scheduled later this year, the company\u2019s president told Spaceflight Now.<\/p>\n

The long-awaited Falcon Heavy rocket could blast off on its first flight as soon as November from launch pad 39A at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, returning the storied Apollo- and shuttle-era launch complex to service for the first time since the last space shuttle mission took off in 2011.<\/p>\n

The destination and passenger for the Falcon Heavy\u2019s first flight remains undecided, said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX\u2019s president and chief operating officer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been a number of customers interested in flying on that (mission),\u201d Shotwell said in an interview with Spaceflight Now. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to balance, does it make sense for this to just be our mission, so we own it completely?\u201d<\/p>\n

SpaceX officials have previously said the first launch of the Falcon Heavy will be strictly a test flight, but Shotwell said the company\u2019s growing customer base has signaled a desire to fly a satellite on the mission.<\/p>\n

She said SpaceX will make the first Falcon Heavy launch \u201cuseful\u201d by proving its capabilities to future customers, such as heaving a hefty payload to geostationary transfer orbit, the targeted drop-off orbit for communications satellites heading for stations 22,300 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless of whether we fly a customer or a purely demonstration mission, we\u2019ll make that mission useful, whether it\u2019s to demonstrate something for a GTO (geostationary transfer orbit) capability for our commercial customers, or whether it\u2019s to demonstrate some requirement for national security space,\u201d Shotwell said.<\/p>\n

Some national security satellites that could fly on Falcon Heavy rockets in the future need boutique services not yet demonstrated by SpaceX. For example, top secret spacecraft designed to eavesdrop on communications must be directly inserted into a circular geostationary orbit 22,300 miles up, bypassing the egg-shaped lower-altitude transfer orbit used by commercial satellites.<\/p>\n

The Delta 4-Heavy rocket built by rival United Launch Alliance currently is the only U.S. launcher capable of delivering those satellites to orbit, along with massive National Reconnaissance Office spy satellites fitted with telescopes and cameras to look down on Earth.<\/p>\n

SpaceX has delayed Falcon Heavy rocket\u2019s debut several times, pushing its maiden flight back from an original target in 2013 until late this year. The company also switched the Falcon Heavy\u2019s first launch site from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, to pad 39A at Kennedy.<\/p>\n

At least one customer has bolted to rival Arianespace in the wake of the Falcon Heavy delays.<\/p>\n

Broadband Internet provider ViaSat switched one of its heavier 14,000-pound (6,400-kilogram) satellites from the Falcon Heavy to the Ariane 5 rocket earlier this year, but it committed to flying a future spacecraft on the Falcon Heavy once the rocket is operational.<\/p>\n

The Falcon Heavy is made by combining three of SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 first stage rocket boosters to generate three times the Falcon 9\u2019s liftoff thrust with 27 Merlin 1D engines. A standard Falcon 9 second stage, powered by a single Merlin 1D engine, will fire multiple times to put Falcon Heavy payloads into orbit.<\/p>\n

SpaceX ordered the latest Falcon Heavy delay in the wake of a Falcon 9 launch failure last year. The company sidelined work on the triple-body rocket to focus engineers on recovering from the failure, and finishing development of an upgraded version of the Falcon 9 with higher-thrust engines and a modified, super-chilled liquid propellant mix.<\/p>\n

\"Artist's
Artist\u2019s concept of SpaceX\u2019s Falcon Heavy rocket. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shotwell said one of the booster cores destined to fly on the first Falcon Heavy launch is already under construction at SpaceX\u2019s headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Once complete, the 15-story-tall boosters will go to SpaceX\u2019s test site in McGregor, Texas, for qualification testing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think all three are built this summer,\u201d she said. \u201cThey should get through Texas testing, and they should be at the launch site in the fall timeframe at 39A.\u201d<\/p>\n

The launch preparations in Florida will culminate with a hold-down firing of all 27 first stage engines, the first time SpaceX will analyze how the engines operate in unison, according to Shotwell.<\/p>\n

Pad 39A will be the base for Falcon Heavy operations at Cape Canaveral. There are no plans to convert SpaceX\u2019s nearby Complex 40 launch facility, the Falcon 9\u2019s current launch pad, for the larger three-core booster, Shotwell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, I actually don\u2019t see a need to fly Falcon Heavy from (pad) 40,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Falcon Heavy\u2019s three kerosene-fueled boosters will generate more than 5.1 million pounds of thrust at sea level, and the rocket stages mounted side by side will give the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket a span of 40 feet (12.2 meters).<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s quite a high pucker factor about Falcon Heavy,\u201d said Elon Musk, SpaceX\u2019s billionaire founder and CEO, in a press conference after the company\u2019s last launch April 8.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe we should have named it the Falcon 27,\u201d he joked. \u201cWe thought maybe that people might balk at that.\u201d<\/p>\n

SpaceX estimates the Falcon Heavy can carry 48,940 pounds (22,200 kilograms) to geostationary transfer orbit, the destination that will likely bring the company the most revenue. That is more than ULA\u2019s Delta 4-Heavy and Europe\u2019s Ariane 5, the rockets currently hauling the world\u2019s heaviest satellites to such an orbit.<\/p>\n

That figure assumes SpaceX throws away the Falcon Heavy\u2019s two side-mounted boosters and central core stage. For most Falcon Heavy flights, SpaceX intends to steer the boosters back to landing pads near the launch site, while the core stage will arc toward an ocean-going landing platform hundreds of miles downrange in the sea.<\/p>\n

Those maneuvers require SpaceX hold a fuel reserve, reducing the mass the rocket can carry into orbit.<\/p>\n

Recovering the Falcon Heavy\u2019s first stage boosters for potential reuse carries a performance penalty.<\/p>\n

\"SpaceX's
SpaceX\u2019s updated Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy performance and pricing chart. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Setting aside propellant for the landing maneuvers cuts the Falcon Heavy\u2019s lift capacity to geostationary transfer orbit to about 17,637 pounds (8,000 kilograms), less than offered by Europe\u2019s existing Ariane 5 and planned Ariane 6 rockets, SpaceX\u2019s rivals in the commercial market.<\/p>\n

The Falcon Heavy\u2019s actual performance figures can only be confirmed after a flight, but Musk said on Twitter this weekend that another thrust upgrade to the Merlin 1D engine planned for introduction on the Falcon 9 later this year will improve SpaceX\u2019s lift capacity.<\/p>\n

The updated figures published on SpaceX\u2019s website reflect the anticipated improvement.<\/p>\n

Ariane\u2019s performance to geostationary transfer orbit is skewed higher by the location of it\u2019s launch site near the equator in French Guiana, meaning communications payloads end up closer to their operational orbits after their deployment from a rocket\u2019s upper stage.<\/p>\n

SpaceX\u2019s updated pricing and performance chart shows a Falcon Heavy rocket lofting up to 8 metric tons to geostationary transfer orbit sells for $90 million. The performance figure assumes SpaceX recovers the boosters, but the price does not factor in reuse.<\/p>\n

Arianespace intends to sell the most powerful variant of the next-generation Ariane 6 rocket \u2014 the Ariane 64 with four solid rocket boosters \u2014 for 90 million euros, or about $103 million, a price to be typically split between two customers per mission once the new launcher enters service in 2020.<\/p>\n

ULA hopes to sell the base version of its new Vulcan rocket, set for a maiden mission by the end of 2019, for less than $100 million.<\/p>\n

Both the Ariane 6 and Vulcan rockets will be fully expendable at first, but ULA is working on a concept to retrieve the Vulcan\u2019s first stage engines by helicopter for refurbishment and reuse some time in the 2020s.<\/p>\n

The first flight of the Falcon Heavy is highly anticipated by commercial satellite operators, scientists and space exploration enthusiasts. It is also important for SpaceX\u2019s bottom line and corporate mission, giving the company access to all of the lucrative military and commercial launch markets and making interplanetary flights possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll do something useful with it,\u201d Shotwell said. \u201cI\u2019m just not sure we\u2019re going to fly a payload yet or not, but there has been some interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

SpaceX aims to launch an uncrewed \u201cRed Dragon\u201d capsule to Mars aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket as soon as May 2018.<\/p>\n

The first Falcon Heavy flight \u201cis going to be an important mission for showing that we can do the biggest satellites in the world, and then some,\u201d Musk said April 8. \u201cIf it reaches orbit, it\u2019ll be the biggest rocket to reach orbit, by thrust, since the space shuttle and Saturn 5, and it\u2019ll be the biggest rocket operating today until SLS is active,\u201d he said, referring to NASA\u2019s Space Launch System.<\/p>\n

Falcon Heavy\u2019s challenges are not lost on Musk.<\/p>\n

The last rocket to fly with so many engines firing simultaneously was Russia\u2019s doomed N1 moon rocket, the Soviet-era answer to NASA\u2019s Saturn 5, which flew four times and never made it out of the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of engines to work simultaneously, and you have three times as many separation events,\u201d Musk said. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot trickier of a proposition than Falcon 9, but the payload capabilities are amazing, and it\u2019s got a lot of potential, particularly for doing the heavy high-altitude geostationary satellites that currently can only be flown by Ariane, if it\u2019s a really heavy satellite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Artist\u2019s concept of SpaceX\u2019s Falcon Heavy rocket. Credit: SpaceX As SpaceX engineers put together the first model of the company\u2019s new Falcon Heavy rocket, officials have not ruled out flying a paying customer\u2019s satellite aboard the maiden flight of the humongous launcher scheduled later this year, the company\u2019s president told Spaceflight Now. The long-awaited Falcon Heavy rocket […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[678,2024,1702,316],"class_list":["post-15546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-falcon-heavy","tag-gwynne-shotwell","tag-launch-pad-39a","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15546"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}