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Editor's note: read our summary of the launch here.
A little over a year ago, SpaceX had made a spectacular first launch for its new rocket, the Falcon Heavy. The flight dispatched the cherry-red Tesla convertible from founder Elon Musk, with an empty space suit called Starman in the driver's seat, during a multi-million year journey around the solar system. After the launch, the first three rocket propellers returned to Earth to attempt an unprecedented synchronized landing.
Now this rocket is getting ready to fly again. The Falcon Heavy represents SpaceX's ambition to compete for lucrative commercial and government contracts that would require the transport of payloads weighing more than 40,000 pounds in a geosynchronous orbit. If this second flight succeeds, the Falcon Heavy will be much closer to the satisfaction of the strict requirements of the army and the conclusion of these agreements.
The first Falcon Heavy commercial flight from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is scheduled for launch at 6:35 pm ET today. Originally scheduled to fly on Sunday, the launch was delayed twice due to adverse weather conditions. The mission will transport a Saudi telecommunication satellite, called Arabsat 6A, into a geosynchronous orbit, where it will provide television, Internet and telephone services to countries in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. A few minutes after the launch, SpaceX will attempt to land each of the first three rocket boosters: two on landing platforms near the launch site and one on a floating drone vessel located 600 km from the coast. Last year, SpaceX managed to bring two boosters back to shore, but fuel problems prevented the core from sticking to its landing.
The most powerful operational rocket in the world, the Falcon Heavy is just a technological marvel. With the thrust equivalent of about 18,747 airliners, it can hoist about 140,000 pounds in low Earth orbit and 58,000 pounds in geosynchronous orbit, which is ample enough to handle the 13,000 pounds of airborne orbit. # 39; Arabsat. However, the main selling point of Falcon Heavy is that it is the only heavy launcher in the world that can be reused.
The first three propellers of the first stage of the Falcon Heavy are directly borrowed from SpaceX's flagship rocket, the Falcon 9, so named because of the nine Merlin engines at the origin of its thrust. Unlike the first flight of the Falcon Heavy, which used an older model of overpressure, the vehicle will now consist of three new engine cores of block 5. SpaceX launched the rocket Block 5 Falcon 9 last May and made 13 flights since with these boosters. Block 5 is designed to fly at least 10 times with minimal renovation between launches and offers a 7% increase in thrust over its predecessors.
If the Falcon Heavy can prove itself, it could significantly reduce the cost of heavy launches. Since 2004, the US heavy-lift market has been dominated by the United Launch Alliance's Delta IV heavy-lift rocket, which offers half the cargo capacity at approximately four times the cost. A single ride on the Delta IV Heavy has been estimated at around $ 350 million, while a launch of Falcon Heavy starts at $ 90 million for a brand new rocket, a price of up to 70 millions of dollars for launches using previously piloted boosters.
For companies looking to launch a large satellite, the savings are considerable. But SpaceX will probably find its biggest customer in the US government. The existence of the Falcon Heavy could be good news for future deep space exploration missions, which often require significant launch capability to launch the spacecraft on Mars and beyond. These missions must already fight to justify their cost and between 10 and 20% of the price of a mission are usually reserved for launch. If NASA can save tens of millions of dollars on the cost of sending its spaceship to other planets, these savings could, in principle, be used to develop exploration missions. which would otherwise have been funded.
To handle the military loads, SpaceX still faces several obstacles before the rocket is allowed to be used. The Air Force booked a flight on the Falcon Heavy in 2012, with an unanticipated initial launch date of 2015. This has not been done yet, but that did not stop the military from attributing at SpaceX a $ 130 million contract for the launch of a classified aircraft. satellite on a Falcon Heavy just a few months after its demonstration flight. Earlier this year, SpaceX won a second contract with the Air Force for another ranked satellite that should fly on the Falcon Heavy. In February, however, the Department of Defense opened an investigation into the military certification of SpaceX rockets for reasons still unclear.
These government contracts are becoming increasingly important for SpaceX, especially with the large satellite commercial market that seems to be slowing down. Indeed, a careful reading of the heavy Delta IV's launch manifesto shows that the majority of its flights over the past 15 years have accommodated military charges, and the possibility of landing some of these lucrative contracts in the future would represent a huge advantage for SpaceX. .
The Air Force will undoubtedly pay special attention to the launch of Arabsat today, which will help prove that the rocket can safely send its sensitive payloads into orbit. In addition, the extra planes that fly today should be reused during the first Air Force mission this summer, assuming they land at the Kennedy. Space Center after their flight.
Meanwhile, the US military is helping to pave the way for a new generation of heavy launchers that will eventually compete with SpaceX. In March, the US government revamped its Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle launcher program, created nearly two decades before SpaceX first introduced a reusable rocket. According to these old guidelines, reusable heavy launchers under development, such as the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket, would have had a hard time qualifying for tricky military missions because rockets are not expendable. The new national security space launch program will provide a clear path for the certification of rockets using previously stolen parts for military missions, a shift largely driven by the success of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.
While this translates into increased competition, the Army's willingness to join the new generation of rockets is paying off for SpaceX. Two Air Force missions have already been scheduled for Heavy, the first of which should be operational by mid-June. Whether SpaceX reaches this target date depends on its ability to meet stringent certification standards for military contracts – and to block the landing of Falcon Heavy boosters today.
Updated 4-11-2019, 1:00 pm ET: Estimated time of launch has been revised.
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