Falcon Heavy’s Most Unique Mission Ever
After years without a mission, late last year Falcon Heavy launched again and since then has been very active. Despite launching earlier this month the rocket is already preparing for another two missions within the next three months, one of which will be very unique in two ways. First scheduled in July, Falcon Heavy will launch the USSF-52 mission.
However, in August, the heavy lift rocket will launch the heaviest commercial satellite ever sent into space and attempt a simultaneous drone ship landing with both side boosters on the same mission. Only days ago a permit was filed that gave us a hint about this dual booster landing attempt. This flight profile and payload combined make this upcoming launch a true test of what the Falcon Heavy is capable of.
If successful, the rocket will have even more opportunities ahead of it and features within its arsenal. All this being said, a booster landing like this has never been attempted and will be far from easy. Here I will go more in-depth into the upcoming mission, how exactly this flight profile would work, what to expect in the coming weeks, and more.
Simultaneous Booster Landings
In the past, we have seen countless drone ship landings between both Falcon Heavy and especially Falcon 9. In this case, SpaceX uses an autonomous droneship which is an ocean-going vessel derived from a deck barge, outfitted with station-keeping engines and a large landing platform. Normally, SpaceX offers three options, depending on launch requirements: landing on land, landing at sea, or expending the first stage, in order of increased performance and cost. Any Falcon flights launched into geostationary orbit or exceeding escape velocity require landing at sea, or expending the first stage.
Just recently, for example, earlier this month during the Viasat-3 mission, we saw Falcon Heavy expend all three of its boosters as it launched without any landing gear or grid fins. Depending on the mission, these factors change quite frequently with different customers and payloads.
While we have seen a host of landing configurations over the years, one we have never seen before is a dual drone-ship landing. Only two days ago on the 10th a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) permit was flied. Within this permit, it was quoted saying, “This STA is necessary to authorize launch vehicle communications and two experimental first-stage droneship recovery operations of the side boosters for SpaceX Falcon Heavy Mission 1468, launching from Complex 39a, Kennedy Space Center. Application includes three sub-orbital first stage boosters, and an orbital second stage. Trajectory data will be provided directly to NTIA, USAF, and NASA. All downrange Earth stations are receive-only. All operations are pre-coordinated with the Range.”
The permit also stated, “Launch vehicle communications for mission launching from LC-39A Kennedy Space Center and the droneship recovery of two side core boosters. Center core is expendable with a water landing.” These various quotes from the permit tell us a few important things about the mission. First and most obvious is that the launch will indeed attempt a simultaneous booster landing of the two side boosters. It also tells us that the center core will be expended and will not attempt to land. In all likelihood, this booster in an expendable configuration will provide extra mass to orbit, in other words, give the payload more station-keeping fuel, longer life, etc.
In total, SpaceX has three operational drone ships: Just Read the Instructions (II) (JRTI) and A Shortfall of Gravitas (ASOG), operating in the Atlantic for launches from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY), operating in the Pacific for supporting missions from Vandenberg Space Force Base. On this upcoming mission, we can expect to see JRTI and ASOG both in position for the landing.
It’s important to point out however that these two drone ship landings will not be easy. While SpaceX has an impressive history with Falcon 9, with the Falcon Heavy, they have never actually successfully landed a center core on the droneship. On the second flight, the center core managed to land but subsequently fell over and was destroyed. Both the first and third missions ended with a bang after the center core impacted the water for various reasons. The next three missions leading up to the launch this month all had an expendable center core meaning the droneship landing was not attempted. This being said, the last attempt on the third flight was almost 4 years ago. In that time SpaceX has gotten a lot more consistent and has immense amounts of experience. Despite this, two drone ship landings at the same time will be quite the feat.
Heaviest Commercial Satellite
To add on to this already exciting mission, it will also feature the heaviest commercial satellite ever sent into space. Back 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 its 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.
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.
Arianespace’s Ariane 5 rocket holds the record for heaviest total payload weight to GTO after it launched two communications satellites weighing 10.27 tons. This was multiple payloads while the upcoming mission is a single large satellite. Maxar is also working on the robotic satellite servicing mission and the Power and Propulsion Element for the lunar Gateway that will support human lunar landings, which are both programs for NASA but neither is due to launch before 2024. In an email, the company said “Maxar’s manufacturing facilities are very active building a multitude of government, civil and commercial customer satellites. EchoStar is a valued customer of Maxar. We’re working hard and looking forward to successful completion of the Jupiter-3 satellite for them.”
After this mission, we can expect to see even more activity with this rocket. After this mission, the next one on the schedule is NASA Psyche in October. Here, Falcon Heavy will launch the 2.6 t (5,700 lb) Psyche orbiter mission into a heliocentric orbit. From there, the spacecraft will visit the Psyche asteroid in the main asteroid belt. This is the last mission set to happen in 2023, however, 2024 is set to be just as busy. Currently, there are at least 5 missions scheduled that year, all of which for NASA. One of these is Europa Clipper, which will conduct a detailed survey of Europa and use a sophisticated suite of science instruments to investigate whether the icy moon has conditions suitable for life. Key mission objectives are to produce high-resolution images of Europa’s surface, determine its composition, look for signs of recent or ongoing geological activity, measure the thickness of the moon’s icy shell, and more. Something to look forward to in the coming months.
Conclusion
SpaceX and the Falcon Heavy rocket are about to attempt the first simultaneous drone ship landing of both side boosters. This comes in addition to launching the heaviest commercial satellite ever sent into space. Both of which combine to create a mission that should be very exciting to watch. We will have to wait and see how it progresses and the impact it has on the space industry.