For this launch, though, the Falcon Heavy will have a smaller, stranger payload: Musk's car, a red Tesla Roadster. The rocket stands 230 feet (70 meters) tall and will be the world's most powerful operational rocket, able to lift payloads of up to 119,000 lbs. I feel quite giddy and happy, actually-I'm really hopeful for this flight going as planned." "What I find strange about this flight is that normally I feel super stressed out the day before this time I don't," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a news teleconference yesterday (Feb. Two will set down on land, while the center stage, which will travel further, will land on a floating barge. The Falcon Heavy is an extreme version of this setup, built to lift more and go further: What is essentially three Falcon 9 first stages boost the rocket into space, and SpaceX will attempt to land all three of them. The rocket's first stages often land to be reused in future launches. SpaceX's current Falcon 9 rocket launches cargo to the International Space Station and lofts satellites into orbit. Weather conditions are currently at 80 percent "go" for today, and 70 percent for a backup launch time tomorrow, according to the 45th Space Wing's Weather Squadron, which monitors weather for air and space operations at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Kennedy Space Center. You can watch the launch live here on, courtesy of SpaceX, beginning at 1:10 p.m. The launch window stretches from 1:30 to 4 p.m. 6) from the historic Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. If SpaceX can sustain that pace, it would translate to an average of almost 94 Falcon launches per year – just shy of Elon Musk’s goal of 100 SpaceX launches in 2023.CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.-SpaceX's giant new rocket, the Falcon Heavy, is set for its risky first test launch today (Feb. The mission was SpaceX’s ninth launch of 2023 and ninth launch in five weeks. Falcon 9’s performance surplus means that Amazonas Nexus will be able to reach its operational orbit faster and while using less of its own propellant, potentially extending its useful lifespan. “Supersynchronous” refers to the fact that the apogee of the transfer orbit is significantly higher than a geosynchronous orbit (~35,800 km). Falcon 9 booster B1073 supported the mission without issue, completing its sixth orbital-class launch and successfully touching down 620 kilometers (386 mi) downrange on SpaceX drone ship Just Read The Instructions.įalcon 9’s expendable upper stage first entered a parking orbit in low Earth orbit (LEO), and later conducted a second burn of its Merlin Vacuum engine, boosting Amazonas Nexus into a supersynchronous geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) measuring roughly 350 kilometers (~215 mi) by 60,000 kilometers (~37,150 mi). The satellite was finally made ready for launch by early February and lifted off on February 6th, 2023. Ordered from Thales Alenia Space in January 2020, Amazonas Nexus was originally scheduled to launch in the second half of 2022, Q3 2022, late 2022, and January 2023. HISPASAT to provide satellite capacity in Greenland through the Greensat mission □□️□ & □□️ /0eFjU1Mi3W- HISPASAT October 7, 2021 It will also carry the Pathfinder 2 payload for the US Space Force, continuing a program created to “explore new contracting models to cover telecommunication service needs with commercial satellites.” In addition to a primary payload for HISPASAT, the satellite will carry GreenSat, which will ensure that 100% of Greenland’s population has access to high-speed internet. Amazonas Nexus is designed to operate for at least 15 years and is powered by a large 20-kilowatt solar array. In 2018, an older version of the Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched Hispasat 30W-6, the company’s next newest satellite. (Richard Angle)Īmazonas Nexus won’t be SpaceX’s first launch for HISPASAT. (Thales Alenia Space) Amazonas Nexus is stored inside its payload fairing. (Richard Angle) The 4.5-ton Amazonas Nexus satellite. Built by Thales Alenia Space, the communications satellite is destined for a geostationary orbit above the western hemisphere, where it will expand and improve HISPASAT’s coverage across Greenland, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Americas. The 4.5-ton (~9,900 lb) Amazonas Nexus communications satellite was the only payload inside the rocket’s reusable carbon-composite payload fairing. After several delays, SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 8:32 pm EST, three hours into a four-hour window.
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