If you follow space programs with keen interest, you might know that the last Falcon Heavy launch was 40 months ago. After such a long span, SpaceX is back with another mission; this time, it is the USSF-44.
The mission will deploy two spacecraft payloads into geosynchronous orbit, and one of those is the TETRA 1 microsatellite. More information about this space mission isn’t available as it is a classified mission. However, the Kennedy Space Center had invited people to witness this once-in-a-lifetime view.
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy is the world’s most powerful operational rocket. It was created by a private company led by CEO Elon Musk. It is designed as a stepping stone to SpaceX’s long shot of developing a colony on Mars.
This rocket is 230 feet tall and has 27 engines. It has three boosters that produce 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, which is the equivalent of eighteen 747s.
Further, the Falcon Heavy’s two side boosters will safely land at landing zone 1 and landing zone 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, while the core stage will be expended. We saw this technique in action with the Falcon 9 back in December 2017.
Watch in the below video provided by Kennedy Space Center, as the boosters mature back to their designated landing zones and experience the double sonic boom of their re-entry.
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) partnered with the United States Air Force (USAF) to award contracts worth a total of $739 million on February 19, 2019. The private company SpaceX received its first national security payload as a part of the Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program.
Currently, the launch manifest for both ULA’s Vulcan Centaur and Blue Origin’s New Glenn is scheduled to start in 2023. However, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy is expected to receive a few additional flights before then, including one at the end of 2022.
Furthermore, SpaceX as a company has covered a new milestone. The company has the aim of dominating the space business but in a very different way.
The approach they follow is to make space travel cheaper and affordable. Now, Twitter owner Elon Musk, who is also the owner of SpaceX, has different visions in his mind.
This recent collaboration with the US forces has shown that the company is always ready to serve its country. The vision of helping others and exceeding further with the goals approach can be seen very clearly.
SpaceX is also very famous for its out-of-the-box thinking, as the CEO has told the world many times about his plan to make space travel accessible for all. The plan is to charge people for a trip into space on per seat basis.
Well, as technology expands its wings, space travel will also be a reality one day, and Elon says that there might be colonies on Mars in the near future.
