by Kicking off a sky-launching headline, SpaceX’s mighty Falcon Heavy rocket blasted away from the Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday atop a torrent of fiery exhaust to put the X-37B unmanned space plane into orbit for a long-duration classified military mission.
At the nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, another team of SpaceX engineers was counting down to loading a workhorse single-core Falcon 9 rocket to launch 23 Starlink internet satellites. The two flights marked the California rocket builder’s 95th and, if all goes well, 96 Falcon family flights so far this year.
The Falcon Heavy did its part, putting on a spectacular show for the residents of the area and for tourists as its 27 Merlin engines, nine of the Falcon 9’s three boosters combined, ignited with a burst of flame and an earthquake roar at 8:07 pm EST.
The rocket then climbed from the Kennedy Space Center atop more than 5 million pounds of thrust and settled on a northeast trajectory, accelerating rapidly as the engines consumed propellant and the vehicle lost weight.
The launch was originally scheduled for December 10, but the flight was delayed due to predicted bad weather and then trouble with ground equipment. The rocket was towed off the launch pad and back to the SpaceX hangar for further work. He was sent back to pad 39A on Wednesday.
This time around, it was clear sailing. The two side boosters, each making their fifth flight, helped power the vehicle out of the dense lower atmosphere before it fell off the center stage two and a half minutes after launch. They immediately turned around, turned back and headed back towards the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
With the sonic peaks of the windows, the two boosters settled on picture-perfect landings, the 40th and 41st to land in Florida. Overall, SpaceX has now successfully recovered 258 first stage boosters.
The core’s nine engines continued firing for a minute and a half after the two separate strap-ons before it, also shut down and separated from the Falcon Heavy’s second stage. Unlike the side boosters, the core phase was expected to use up all of its drive and no recovery was planned.
No details were released about the second stage’s climb to the plane’s intended orbit. As is customary with such classified military missions, SpaceX ended its launch commentary after the side booster landing about eight and a half minutes after the breach.
With the Falcon Heavy off the ground, SpaceX engineers at the Cape Canaveral Space Station moved forward with plans to launch the single-core Falcon 9 and its payload of 23 Starlink satellites.
Entering the flight, SpaceX had launched 5,627 Starlinks in 131 flights dating back to May 2019. Of the total launched so far, space statistician Jonathan McDowell said 5,211 were operational. Thursday’s planned flight would increase the total number of Starlink launches so far this year to 63.
The Falcon Heavy completed the rocket’s ninth flight while the X-37B completed the program’s seventh.
The Pentagon’s Office of Rapid Resources operates two nearly identical X-37B Orbital Test Vehicles, or OTVs, for the US Space Force. The vehicles are designed to serve as testbeds for avionics and advanced sensors, to evaluate reusable spacecraft components and to provide a platform for experiments that can be returned to Earth for analysis.
The Boeing-built X-37B looks a bit like a small space shuttle, with delta wings, heat shield tiles and a compact payload bay. Unlike NASA’s space shuttle, which relied on fuel cells for power in orbit, the X-37B is equipped with an extendable solar array that allows for extremely long flights.
The compact orbiters are designed to end their missions with a runway landing at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California or the Kennedy Space Center in Florida using 3-mile-long runways originally built for the space shuttle.
The most recent flight of the X-37B began aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket on May 17, 2020. It ended on November 12, 2022, with a landing at the Kennedy Space Center after 908 days and 21 hours in space.
Through the program’s six previous flights dating back to the first launch in April 2010, the two X-37Bs have logged a combined 10.3 years in space. The planned distance of the latest mission has not been announced.
“The Points Guy” shares his top travel destinations for 2024
The inventor of a dental device backs up his claims after investigating patient injuries
Nikki Haley’s Civil War comments prompt reactions from GOP candidates
