This week’s SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launch was the first of its kind in 40 months and has whetted space fans’ appetites for more.
Fans of Falcon Heavy, a massive rocket built by SpaceX, won’t have to wait so long next time after its epic launch on November 1 that put a military satellite into space. The next mission could start as early as December, although the timing is very uncertain.
There are two candidates for the next launch: another military satellite on behalf of Space Force, or a communications satellite for ViaSat to launch a trio of high-bandwidth communications launches.
ViaSat has not yet confirmed its October promise (opens in new tab) that the launch will occur later this year and likely won’t do so until financial results are released no earlier than Tuesday (November 8). The SpaceFlightNow launch calendar (opens in new tab) NET suggests (no earlier than) December 2022, but the date is tentative and could move into the new year.
Related: Why SpaceX hasn’t flown a Falcon Heavy rocket since 2019
Alternatively, according to an October report by SpaceFlightNow, a classified payload for the Space Force (designated USSF-67) is to be deployed as early as January 2023 (opens in new tab)who found possible clues to the functionality of the satellite in the mission patch.
“Mission patches for the USSF-67 launch indicate that it will carry the second starship for the Space Force’s Continuous Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM or CBAS program,” the report said. “The first CBAS satellite was launched in 2018, and officials said at the time the satellite was designed to relay communications signals between senior leaders and military combatants.”
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The long gap since the last launch in June 2019 was mostly due to delays in delivering payloads on the rocket’s manifest, but in the meantime SpaceX has pushed ahead with launches of its much lighter Falcon 9 workhorse several times a month. In 2022, more than 50 of them have already been reached, which is a record.
Falcon Heavy itself is based on first-stage boosters, all modified versions of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket capable of vertical landings after launch. (The core stage usually falls on a SpaceX drone ship in the ocean, though Tuesday’s launch saw the stage ditch in the ocean, as most of its fuel had to be used to launch the satellite into geostationary orbit.)
Elizabeth Howell is co-author of “why am i taller (opens in new tab)?” (ECW Press, 2022; starring Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a book on space medicine. Follow her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
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