SpaceX is organizing the launch of the Falcon Heavy on the night of December 28 to 29. This will be the last flight of the American group’s largest operational rocket for this year.
2023 will have been a good year for the Falcon Heavy. SpaceX’s heavy launcher has been mobilized four times in recent years – which has never been seen since the rocket was put into service. A record which will be further improved in December, because a fifth mission is planned. The beneficiaries are the United States Air Force and Space Force.
The flight of the Falcon Heavy in summary
- What ? Putting an experimental space shuttle into orbit
- When ? December 29, 2023, at 2:07 a.m. (Paris time);
- Or ? At the Kennedy Space Center, Florida;
- What will we see? Takeoff of the Falcon Heavy rocket.
Where to watch the launch live?
SpaceX no longer appears to be providing streaming on YouTube these days. The American company instead offers the solution from X (formerly Twitter), which recently includes a live broadcast service. You can follow this link to see the departure of the Falcon Heavy.
What is SpaceX’s mission?
SpaceX must launch its Falcon Heavy from the United States and bring it into the upper atmosphere. On site, the machine will have to release its payload: we have known since November that the fairing accommodates the X-37B space shuttle, a vehicle whose development is supervised by the Air Force and the US Space Force. UNITED STATES.
The X-37B vehicles are known for their remarkable longevity in orbit. There have already been six such missions: this is the seventh. This is the first time that a Falcon Heavy has been used for transport. Previously, there have been five Atlas rockets and one Falcon 9 rocket.
It was in 2018 that the contract with the American army was signed. Initially, the X-37B should have left in 2021, but the flight was delayed by two years for reasons of availability of the payload and the range, reported the media Spacenews. The mission is nicknamed USSF-52. It is currently unknown how long this vehicle will remain in space.
For its part, SpaceX specifies that the side boosters have already flown four times (USSF-44, USSF-67, Hughes Jupiter 3, and Psyche). After the boosters separate, they will automatically return to Earth, as usual. SpaceX says nothing about the third booster or the two parts of the fairing. The X37-B will return to Earth, alone, at an indefinite horizon.
When does the Falcon Heavy rocket take off?
SpaceX initially aimed a takeoff on the night of December 10 to 11 (depending on the Paris time zone), but the weather forecast did not bode well. After several postponements, the company announced a new launch date on December 16. The USSF-52 mission is normally scheduled to take off on the night of December 28 to 29, 2023.
(updating the topic with the new launch date)
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