{"id":16167,"date":"2015-07-21T18:51:49","date_gmt":"2015-07-21T10:51:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/first-flight-of-falcon-heavy-delayed-again\/"},"modified":"2015-07-21T18:51:49","modified_gmt":"2015-07-21T10:51:49","slug":"first-flight-of-falcon-heavy-delayed-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/first-flight-of-falcon-heavy-delayed-again\/","title":{"rendered":"First flight of Falcon Heavy delayed again"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Artist's
Artist\u2019s concept of the Falcon Heavy rocket, which will lift off powered by 27 Merlin main engines, generating nearly 4 million pounds of thrust. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SpaceX has slowed development of the Falcon Heavy rocket, a mega-booster made of three Falcon 9 booster cores strapped together, as the company recovers from a launch failure last month, delaying the new rocket\u2019s inaugural flight until early 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven our focus on Falcon 9, we\u2019ve de-prioritized Falcon Heavy to probably launch in the spring next year, maybe April or so,\u201d SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk told reporters Monday.<\/p>\n

The news is not surprising to many customers, who have watched the Falcon Heavy\u2019s first launch repeatedly rescheduled since SpaceX unveiled the powerful new rocket in April 2011, when officials forecast its maiden flight in early 2013. Four years on from the Falcon Heavy\u2019s debut, the huge rocket is in its third year of delays.<\/p>\n

SpaceX officials previously said the Falcon Heavy could launch by the end of this year.<\/p>\n

But the delays have not stopped customers from signing up to fly on the rocket.<\/p>\n

Encouraged by competitive pricing and confidence from SpaceX\u2019s string of 18 successful Falcon 9 flights in a row \u2014 before a June 28 launch failure \u2014 several satellite operators have purchased Falcon Heavy launches, beginning as soon as next year.<\/p>\n

SpaceX plans the first Falcon Heavy flight from Kennedy Space Center\u2019s launch pad 39A, an Apollo- and shuttle-era facility now being modified for the Falcon rocket family. It will be a demonstration mission, according to SpaceX officials.<\/p>\n

\"Construction
Construction of a hangar at Kennedy Space Center\u2019s launch pad 39A, which SpaceX is leasing from NASA, began early this year. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A second Falcon Heavy flight will loft a menagerie of U.S. military, NASA and international payloads under a launch contract with the U.S. Air Force. Subsequent Falcon Heavy launches are on the books for Arabsat, ViaSat, Inmarsat and Intelsat, four major satellite telecom firms.<\/p>\n

According to SpaceX\u2019s website, a commercial Falcon Heavy launch to send up a 6.4 metric ton (14,109-pound) satellite into geostationary transfer orbit, a popular target orbit for communications payloads, goes for about $90 million. A Falcon Heavy launch for the Air Force, which requires special contract terms for mission assurance, could be priced as high as $160 million, said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX\u2019s president and chief operating officer, in testimony to a congressional committee in March.<\/p>\n

SpaceX needs the Falcon Heavy to lift all of the U.S. military\u2019s national security satellites, many of which are too heavy to go up on the medium-class Falcon 9. Gen. John Hyten, head of Air Force Space Command, says the Falcon 9 can only satisfy about one-third of the military\u2019s national security launch requirements.<\/p>\n

The Air Force certified the Falcon 9 to haul up the Defense Department\u2019s most critical satellites in May, but a similar certification of the Falcon Heavy is pending at least three successful launches.<\/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 the Falcon Heavy rocket, which will lift off powered by 27 Merlin main engines, generating nearly 4 million pounds of thrust. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX has slowed development of the Falcon Heavy rocket, a mega-booster made of three Falcon 9 booster cores strapped together, as the company recovers from a launch failure last […]<\/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":[1045,678,316],"class_list":["post-16167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-elon-musk","tag-falcon-heavy","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16167"}],"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=16167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}