USSF-67 was Falcon Heavy’s second nationwide safety area launch
Up to date Jan. 16 with Area Methods Command announcement of profitable mission
WASHINGTON — A SpaceX Falcon Heavy lifted off Jan. 15 at 5:56 p.m. Jap from Launch Complicated 39A at Kennedy Area Heart, Florida, carrying the U.S. Area Pressure USSF-67 mission to geostationary Earth orbit.
USSF-67 was the Area Pressure’s first nationwide safety mission of 2023 and marked Falcon Heavy’s fifth flight since its 2018 debut, in addition to its second nationwide safety area launch following the Nov. 1 launch of USSF-44.
About two and a half minutes after liftoff, each facet boosters separated. The second stage separated from the core stage simply over 4 minutes after liftoff.
Each facet boosters landed again at SpaceX’s Touchdown Zones 1 and a couple of at Cape Canaveral Area Pressure Station in Florida, about eight and a half minutes after liftoff. These landings marked SpaceX’s 163rd and 164th profitable booster recoveries. They are going to be refurbished for future nationwide safety area missions.
The expendable middle core was jettisoned into the Atlantic Ocean and was not recovered because the mission’s efficiency necessities didn’t enable sufficient gas to return the stage again to Earth.
SpaceX ended the reside webcast after the booster landings and didn’t present views of the second stage or the payload at U.S. authorities request.
About six hours after liftoff, the Area Methods Command confirmed the mission was profitable. “We had one other improbable launch right this moment on a Falcon Heavy,” mentioned Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, program govt officer for assured entry to area, mentioned in a information launch.
The first payload was the U.S. Area Pressure’s Steady Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM (CBAS)-2 communications satellite tv for pc, used to relay knowledge from present satellites. The second spacecraft was the Lengthy Length Propulsive ESPA, or LDPE-3A, made by Northrop Grumman, a bus carrying 5 small navy payloads
Two of the 5 are U.S. Area Methods Command smallsats. One referred to as Catcher, is a prototype area area consciousness sensor. The opposite, named WASSAT, is a prototype wide-area sensor to trace different spacecraft and particles objects in geosynchronous orbit.
The opposite three smallsat payloads have been developed by the Area Speedy Capabilities Workplace, a Area Pressure group that performs largely labeled tasks. Area RCO spokesperson Matt Fetrow mentioned two of the payloads are operational prototypes for area situational consciousness missions and the third one is a data-encryption payload to safe space-to-ground knowledge transmissions.
“Area RCO started working with SSC to establish launch alternatives for these payloads again in 2019,” Fetrow mentioned. The LDPE bus was “an important answer,” he mentioned. “It’s actually arduous to seek out an important journey like this.”
The Falcon Heavy’s first stage is made up of three Falcon 9 rockets strapped collectively, with 27 engines powering the primary stage and one engine within the second stage. SpaceX obtained a $316 million contract in August 2020 to launch USSF-67.
