SpaceX is approaching the record for using the Falcon Heavy. At the end of July, the company will complete its third flight of the year with this rocket. Two other missions are expected by December.
The Falcon Heavy, SpaceX’s most powerful rocket to date, will take off again at the end of July. This is what the American company confirmed on July 24 in a message on the social network Twitter, now renamed X. The theft is announced on July 26. However, given the time difference, take-off will take place on July 27 for mainland France.
” The teams have completed the launch readiness review and we are targeting Wednesday July 26 for launch by Falcon Heavy », writes SpaceX. The payloads are commercially oriented, to provide communication and connectivity services for the planet. The flight will depart from Florida, from the Kennedy Space Center.
Intense use of the Falcon Heavy in 2023
This will be the third time this year that SpaceX will mobilize the Falcon Heavy, never before for this launcher. Since the beginning of the year, the company has been using this heavyweight rocket, which is an assembly of three Falcon 9 rockets (two of which have in fact been “decapitated” to serve as boosters), at an unprecedented rate.
Before 2023, the Falcon Heavy served on five missions: one in 2018, two in 2019 and a final one in 2022. An extremely fragmented and occasional schedule, which almost made the Falcon Heavy more of a technical curiosity than a really relevant launcher. But since this year, the pace has been much more sustained. Moreover, two other flights are also planned for 2023.
Beyond 2023, SpaceX has tied the Falcon Heavy to other more distant missions – there is talk of five more flights in 2024, and three in 2026. The future of the Falcon Heavy on a relatively distant horizon, however, is clouded by the expected emergence of the Starship, the rocket that will replace the company’s two current solutions. It is still in development.
The two side thrusters, which have already been used during other missions, must be recovered at the end of the sequence – they will automatically return to Earth, landing gently on two areas provided for this purpose.
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