Falcon Heavy Is About To Launch The Heaviest Commercial Satellite Ever
SpaceX just finished another impressive year with a staggering 61 launches in total, almost double the 31 launches in 2021. While the majority of these missions used the Falcon 9, not long ago we saw Falcon Heavy lift off once again for the first time in around 3 years. Now in January of 2023, this heavy lift rocket is already preparing for another mission.
Included in this busy upcoming schedule is a record breaking launch that will attempt to place the heaviest satellite in history into a geostationary orbit. With a launch date set for early 2023, this historic mission could only be weeks away. All of which comes in addition to the USSF 67 mission set to happen later this month.
Between the middle of 2019 and late 2022, Falcon Heavy didn’t launch at all due to an increase in Falcon 9’s capabilities, lack of demand for specific services, and a few other reasons. Thankfully, now in the new year, this launch vehicle has more missions on the calendar than ever before. Here I will go more in-depth into how Falcon Heavy will launch the heaviest satellite in the world, its busy schedule, what to expect in the future, and more.
Heaviest Satellite Ever
In early 2022 at a press meeting during the Satellite conference, Hughes President and CEO confirmed that SpaceX would be launching its 500 Gbps Jupiter 3 satellite. This is the newest Ultra-High-Density Satellite in the Hughes’ satellite network, expected to be the world’s largest broadband satellite network to communities, businesses, and aeronautics. Jupiter 3 weighs around 9,200 kilograms or 20,280 pounds. This makes it the heaviest commercial satellite in history. In terms of capabilities, Falcon Heavy features a payload capacity to low Earth orbit of 63,800 kg / 140,660 lb. However, as partially mentioned prior, this satellite is going into geostationary orbit which takes much more propellant to reach. At this specific orbit, Falcon Heavy’s payload capacity drops to 26,700 kg / 58,860 lb, still well within range for this specific satellite.
Over the last few years, this satellite has faced quite a few changes in plans regarding schedule and launch provider. The company had previously signed a launch contract in late-2020 but at that time refused to declare with whom. They also announced a small delay to the planned launch from the second half of 2022 to the fourth quarter of 2022. In May of last year, they announced that it would not launch before the first quarter of 2023. “This delay is due in part to relocation of critical resources at Maxar to a higher priority government-related spacecraft project,” said the president of Hughes Networks Systems, the EchoStar subsidiary that operates the Jupiter network. Now in January, a launch within the coming weeks is possible as no changes have been made to the early 2023 estimate.
Focusing back on the mission itself, because of the massive size of this satellite, SpaceX may not be able to try and recover all of Falcon Heavy’s boosters. During a launch, the process of recovering boosters requires the company to save propellant for the journey back to land or to a droneship. This ends up taking away some possible capabilities and lowering the payload capacity depending on the destination. In this case, SpaceX will likely attempt to recover the two side boosters on land, and expend the center core to ensure the satellite gets to its GTO destination without any issues.
GTO is a highly elliptical Earth orbit with an apogee of 42,164 km (26,199 mi), or 35,786 km (22,236 mi) above sea level, which corresponds to the geostationary altitude. The period of a standard geosynchronous transfer orbit is about 10.5 hours. A stationary satellite provides the advantage of remote sensing in that it always views the Earth from the same perspective, which means that it can record the same image at brief intervals. This arrangement is useful for observations of weather conditions and communication. One disadvantage of geostationary orbits is the great distance to the Earth, which reduces the achievable spatial resolution. It also makes it harder to reach than low Earth orbit for example. Not long from now, we can expect to see Falcon Heavy lift off with this massive satellite headed for this orbit.
Busy Schedule
Now that we know more about Falcon Heavy’s upcoming mission with the heaviest commercial satellite ever, we can take a closer look at a host of other Falcon Heavy launches in the coming months and the launch vehicle itself. As of right now, 2023 is set to be the busiest year for Falcon Heavy by far. Starting off with the ViaSat 3 launch which was originally scheduled to happen in 2022. Just months ago in November, they announced that the launch would not happen in 2022. Instead, the operator expects the satellite will be shipped from Boeing’s manufacturing facilities in California to SpaceX’s launchpad in Florida in time for a launch in the first quarter of 2023.
Falcon Heavy was originally slated to launch the Viasat-2 satellite, but due to delays an Ariane 5 launch vehicle was used instead. Viasat maintained the launch option and will launch its next Ka-band satellite, which will serve either of the Asia-Pacific (APAC), Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) or Americas regions, using Falcon Heavy. The upper stage of Falcon Heavy will deploy the satellite into a near-geosynchronous orbit that will include a coasting stage several hours long between burns. Arcturus was added as an independent secondary payload in late September 2021.
Moving on we then have the USSF-67 mission. On November first we watched the successful launch of Falcon Heavy during the USSF-44 mission. 67 however will be the first SpaceX launch of the Phase 2 USAF contract, likely to be on a Falcon Heavy with an increased fairing size. The launch will use three new boosters, with the center core in an expendable configuration (no grid fins or landing gear), while the two side-boosters will be targeting a simultaneous landing on droneships Just Read The Instructions and A Shortfall Of Gravitas as the mission requirements are similar as of USSF-44 mission. A few times now we have watched both boosters land at practically the same time on land. While exciting, a double droneship landing would be a first and very impressive. This mission is also scheduled for the first quarter of this year and we will likely hear more about it in the coming weeks. In addition to these three missions, you have USSF-52 scheduled for April and Psyche in October. A lot to look forward to in 2023 for Falcon Heavy.
Looking at the heavy lift rocket, Falcon Heavy is composed of three reusable Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft. As one of the world’s most powerful operational rockets, Falcon Heavy can lift nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 lbs) to orbit. The side cores, or boosters, are connected on the nosecone, the interstage, and on the octaweb. Shortly after liftoff the center core engines are throttled down. After the side cores separate, the center core engines throttle back up to full thrust. For reusability, the Falcon Heavy first stage is equipped with 12 landing legs (4 on each booster) made of state-of-the-art carbon fiber with aluminum honeycomb. All 12 landing legs are stowed along the side of each booster until just prior to landing.
The interstage is a composite structure that connects the center core on the first stage and second stages and holds the release and separation system. Falcon Heavy draws upon Falcon 9’s proven design, which minimizes stage separation events and maximizes reliability. The second-stage Merlin Vacuum Engine delivers the rocket’s payload to orbit after the main engines cut off and the first-stage cores separate. At the very top, made of a carbon composite material, the fairing protects satellites on their way to orbit. Overtime we have seen SpaceX recover fairings for reuse on future missions.
The first and second stages are mated by mechanical latches at three points between the top of the interstage and the base of the second-stage fuel tank. After the first-stage engines shut down, a high-pressure helium circuit is used to release the latches via redundant actuators. The helium system also preloads four pneumatic pushers, which provide a positive-force for stage separation after latch release. This includes a redundant center pusher to further decrease the probability of re-contact between the stages following separation. The two halves of the standard fairing are fastened by mechanical latches along the fairing vertical seam. To deploy the fairing, a high-pressure helium circuit releases the latches, and four pneumatic pushers facilitate positive-force deployment of the two halves. The use of all-pneumatic separation systems provides a benign shock environment, allows acceptance and preflight testing of the actual separation system hardware, and minimizes debris created during separation. A system that has worked very well overtime and we can expect to see again in the coming months.
Conclusion
SpaceX and the Falcon Heavy are about to launch the heaviest commercial satellite ever. This unique mission comes in addition to a host of other launches scheduled in the first quarter of 2023 and later in the year. While the Falcon Heavy had a slow start and a big break for around 3 years, it’s now back and ready to take over the industry. We will have to wait and see how it progresses and the impact it has on the space industry.