STP-02: DSX + попутчики - Falcon Heavy - Kennedy LC-39A - 25.06.2019, 06:30 UTC

[tnt22]

Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight 18 мин. назад

FEATURE ARTICLE:
NASA highlights payloads on next Falcon Heavy; LZ-1 cleared for normal operations -

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2019/06/nasa-payloads-next-falcon-heavy-lz-1/ ...

By Chris Gebhardt (@ChrisG_NSF)

Lead photo by Nathan Barker (@NASA_Nerd) for NSF/L2

Спойлер

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[tnt22]

https://ria.ru/20190611/1555468022.html

Falcon Heavy отправит на орбиту космический зонд на "чистом топливе"
05:43

ВАШИНГТОН, 11 июн – РИА Новости. Уникальные атомные часы, зонд на "чистом топливе" и десятки других новейших наработок НАСА и ВС США отправятся в испытательный полет на сверхмощной ракете Falcon Heavy в конце июня, сообщили их разработчики на брифинге НАСА в понедельник.

Старт новейшей сверхтяжелой ракеты-носителя Falcon Heavy планируется на 24 июня. Основным заказчиком старта выступает министерство обороны США, по контракту с ним ракета отправит на орбиту 24 аппарата в рамках объединенной миссии STP-2 (Space Test Program – 2). Для SpaceX это станет первым полетом Falcon Heavy для минобороны США, при этом на борту РН будут находиться разработки не только военных, но и гражданских ведомств США.

Как сообщили в НАСА в понедельник, на борту ракеты-носителя в тестовый полет отправится сразу несколько экспериментальных наработок. Одной из самых интересных из них станут атомные часы (Deep Space Atomic Clock project, DSAC), которые в будущем при миссиях в далекий космос могут использоваться для обеспечения навигации космических аппаратов.

"Это первые космические ионные атомные часы, и это также инструмент, который кардинально изменит то, как мы осуществляем навигацию в далеком космосе", - рассказала на брифинге заместитель ведущего научного сотрудника миссии Джилл Сойберт. По словам создателей, одно из главных достоинств аппарата заключается в его точности: "они допускают ошибку в секунду лишь один раз за 9 миллионов лет", примечательно, что новый инструмент в 50 раз точнее, чем используемые сегодня навигационные часы.

В НАСА сообщили, что специалисты будут наблюдать за работой часов в течение предстоящего года и надеются, что в будущем их разработка будет использоваться при полетах на Марс и дальше в космос. Первые данные о работе инструмента, ожидают разработчики, будут получены уже осенью текущего года. Как сообщили в НАСА, создание компактных атомных космических часов обошлось примерно в 80 миллионов долларов.

Помимо атомных часов на борту Falcon Heavy на орбиту отправят аппарат GPIM (Green Propellant Infusion Mission), работающий на нетоксичном топливе. Разработка исследовательской лаборатории ВВС США предлагает альтернативу гидразину, горючему веществу, используемому космическими кораблями сегодня. Ноу-хау заключается в использовании смеси из гидроксила аммонийной селитры и окислителя.

Как пояснил ведущий научный сотрудник проекта Кристофер Маклейн, новое топливо менее токсично для человека, а значит требует меньше затрат и времени при заправке аппарата. Помимо этого, новое топливо более плотное, чем гидразин, и на 50% эффективнее. "Это значит, что при меньшем объеме топлива на борту аппарат может пролететь дальше", - сообщили разработчики, добавив, что и полезная нагрузка космического аппарата в таком случае может быть больше.

В числе других проектов, которые будут испытаны на орбите Земли после запуска Falcon Heavy – кубсаты E-TBEx, которым предстоит изучить влияние ионосферы Земли на проходящие в ней радиосигналы. Исследование, которое ведут студенты и выпускники Мичиганского университета, призвано обеспечить в будущем бесперебойную связь для военных и морских служб США.

Как сообщили в компании SpaceX в преддверии старта, он станет одним из самых сложных в истории РН Falcon: запуск аппаратов будет происходить с трех разных орбит и затянется на шесть часов. Для запуска минобороны планирует использовать уже летавшие ранее боковые ускорители Falcon Heavy.

Спойлер

Первый коммерческий старт и второй с момента ее создания ракеты Falcon Heavy состоялся в апреле 2019 года. Ракета осуществила запуск спутника Arabsat 6A для Саудовской Аравии.

США позиционируют Falcon Heavy как самую мощную из всех существующих в мире ракет, она в три раза мощнее Falcon 9. Каждая из трех блоков первых ступеней Falcon Heavy оснащена девятью двигателями Merlin 1D. Традиционно для своих запусков SpaceX после апрельского старта осуществила посадку двух боковых и центрального разгонных блоков.

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[Старый]

tnt22 пишет:
Ноу-хау заключается в использовании смеси из гидроксила аммонийной селитры и окислителя.

А эта хрень не хуже для экологии чем сам гидразин?  :oops:

[Старый]

tnt22 пишет:
Помимо этого, новое топливо более плотное, чем гидразин, и на 50% эффективнее.

Это чего? Удельный импульс за 400 секунд?   

[vlad7308]

Старый пишет:

tnt22 пишет:
Ноу-хау заключается в использовании смеси из гидроксила аммонийной селитры и окислителя.

А эта хрень не хуже для экологии чем сам гидразин?  :oops:

Селитра это вообще удобрение

[sychbird]

Борщевик небо закроет. Джунгли Амазонки отдыхают.

[tnt22]

Satellite Signals from Space: Smart Science for Understanding Weather and Climate

The COMET Program/MetEd

Опубликовано: 20 нояб. 2018 г.

Targeted to students and teachers in Grades 5-9 but accessible to anyone interested in the topic, this video introduces learners to the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate, called COSMIC. The latest COSMIC mission, known as COSMIC-2, uses a set of six satellites orbiting near Earth to measure how the atmosphere affects signals from global positioning system (GPS) satellites high above the surface. The observations collected offer scientists very accurate information to improve weather forecasts, help monitor a part of Earth's upper atmosphere called the ionosphere, and provide long-term records for understanding Earth's climate.

(5:03)

FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 Satellite System: Next Gen Weather & Climate Observations

The COMET Program/MetEd

Опубликовано: 23 мая 2019 г.

The latest-generation Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2) provides high-resolution observations of Earth's atmosphere, including the ionosphere. In this video, scientists and mission planners introduce the instrumentation used and describe the collaborations that made the COSMIC-2 mission possible. These experts describe how COSMIC uses a technique called radio occultation, making use of existing navigation satellite signals passing through the atmosphere to provide detailed measurements of temperature, pressure, and water vapor. They explain how these data contribute to exciting improvements in numerical weather prediction, hurricane forecasts, climate studies, and analysis of space weather affecting communication networks and other systems on Earth.

(6:18)

[tnt22]

Emre Kelly‏Подлинная учетная запись @EmreKelly 1 ч. назад

#SpaceX Falcon Heavy STP-2 now firmly on the Eastern Range's launch calendar for Monday, June 24 @ 2330 ET / 0330 UTC +1. Liftoff from 39A, landings at LZ-1 and drone ship.

[tnt22]

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7427

JUNE 14, 2019
How an Atomic Clock Will Get Humans to Mars on Time


The Deep Space Atomic Clock, a new technology fr om NASA's JPL, may change the way spacecraft navigate in space. Launching in late June aboard the Orbital Test Bed satellite, on the SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket, descendants of the technology demonstration could be a key component of a self-driving spacecraft and a GPS-like navigation system at other worlds.Credit: General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems 
› Larger view

NASA navigators are helping build a future where spacecraft could safely and autonomously fly themselves to destinations like the Moon and Mars.

Navigators today tell a spacecraft where to go by calculating its position fr om Earth and sending the location data to space in a two-way relay system that can take anywhere fr om minutes to hours to deliver directions. This method of navigation means that no matter how far a mission travels through the solar system, our spacecraft are still tethered to the ground, waiting for commands fr om our planet.

That limitation poses obvious problems for a future crewed mission to another planet. How can astronauts navigate far fr om Earth if they don't have immediate control over where they're going? And how can they accurately land on another planet when there's a communication delay that affects how quickly they can adjust their trajectory into the atmosphere?

NASA's Deep Space Atomic Clock is a toaster-size device that aims to answer those questions. It's the first GPS-like instrument small and stable enough to fly on a spacecraft. The technology demonstration enables the spacecraft to know wh ere it is without needing to rely on that data from Earth. In late June, the clock will launch on the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket into Earth's orbit for one year, wh ere it will test whether it can help spacecraft locate themselves in space.

If the Deep Space Atomic Clock's trial year in space goes well, it could pave the way for a future of one-way navigation in which astronauts are guided by a GPS-like system across the surface of the Moon or can safely fly their own missions to Mars and beyond.

"Every spacecraft exploring deep space is steered by navigators here on Earth. Deep Space Atomic Clock will change that by enabling onboard autonomous navigation, or self-driving spacecraft," said Jill Seubert, the deputy principal investigator.

There's No GPS in Deep Space

Спойлер

Atomic clocks in space aren't new. Every GPS device and smartphone determines its location via atomic clocks on satellites orbiting Earth. The satellites send signals from space, and the receiver triangulates your position by measuring how long the signals take to reach your GPS.

Currently, spacecraft flying beyond Earth's orbit don't have a GPS to find their way through space. Atomic clocks on GPS satellites aren't accurate enough to send directions to spacecraft, when being off by even less than a second could mean missing a planet by miles.

Instead, navigators use giant antennas on Earth to send a signal to the spacecraft, which bounces it back to Earth. Extremely precise clocks on the ground measure how long it takes the signal to make this two-way journey. The amount of time tells them how far away the spacecraft is and how fast it's going. Only then can navigators send directions to the spacecraft, telling it wh ere to go.

"It's the same exact concept as an echo," said Seubert. "If I'm standing in front of a mountain and I shout, the longer it takes for the echo to come back to me, the farther away the mountain is."

Two-way navigation means that no matter how deep into space a mission goes, it still has to wait for a signal carrying commands to cross the vast distances between planets. It's a process made famous by Mars landings like Curiosity, when the world waited 14 long minutes with mission control for the rover to send the message that it landed safely. That delay is an average wait time: Depending on wh ere Earth and Mars are in their orbits, it can take anywhere from 4 to 20 minutes for a one-way signal to travel between planets.

It's a slow, laborious way to navigate in deep space, one that ties up the giant antennas of NASA's Deep Space Network like a busy phone line. During this exchange, a spacecraft flying at tens of thousands of miles per hour could be in an entirely different place by the time it "knows" wh ere it is.

[свернуть]

A Better Way to Navigate

Спойлер

An atomic clock small enough to fly on a mission but precise enough to give accurate directions could eliminate the need for this two-way system. Future navigators would send a signal from Earth to a spacecraft. Like its Earthly cousins, the Deep Space Atomic Clock onboard would measure the amount of time it took that signal to reach it. The spacecraft could then calculate its own position and trajectory, essentially giving itself directions.

"Having a clock onboard would enable onboard radio navigation and, when combined with optical navigation, make for a more accurate and safe way for astronauts to be able to navigate themselves," said Deep Space Atomic Clock Principal Investigator Todd Ely.

This one-way navigation has applications for Mars and beyond. DSN antennas would be able to communicate with multiple missions at a time by broadcasting one signal into space. The new technology could improve the accuracy of GPS on Earth. And multiple spacecraft with Deep Space Atomic Clocks could orbit Mars, creating a GPS-like network that would give directions to robots and humans on the surface.

"The Deep Space Atomic Clock will have the ability to aid in navigation, not just locally but in other planets as well. One way to think of it is as if we had GPS at other planets," said Eric Burt, the ion clock development lead.

Burt and fellow JPL clock physicists Robert Tjoelker and John Prestage created a mercury ion clock, which maintains its stability in space in the same way as refrigerator-size atomic clocks on Earth. In lab tests, the Deep Space Atomic Clock proved to be 50 times more accurate than GPS clocks. That's an error of 1 second every 10 million years.

The clock's demonstration in space will determine whether it can remain stable in orbit. If it does, a Deep Space Atomic Clock could fly on a mission as early as the 2030s. The first step toward self-driving spacecraft that could one day carry humans to other worlds.

The Deep Space Atomic Clock is hosted on a spacecraft provided by General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems of Englewood, Colorado. It is sponsored by the Technology Demonstration Missions program within NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate and the Space Communications and Navigations program within NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. JPL manages the project.

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2019-116

[кукушка]

Запуск миссии STP-2 на Falcon Heavy состоится 25 июня в 6:30 МСК / 3:30 UTC / 11:30 p.m EDT 24 июня 

Центральный блок и обтекатель Falcon Heavy замечены в ангаре горизонтальной сборки площадки LC-39A в KSC.

А на OCISLY тем временем замечен модернизированный робот для захвата ступени — Roomba. В этом запуске планируется использовать его впервые для удержания центрального блока Falcon Heavy.

В этой массовой миссии в интересах ВВС США планируется запустить 24 малых космических аппарата и кубсата (4 из них для NASA) на 3 разные средние-околоземные орбиты. Это будет заключительная миссия в программе сертификации Falcon Heavy для военных запусков программы NSSL. 

 Ракета-носитель: Falcon Heavy Block 5 B1052.2/B1057.1/B1053.2 — новый центральный блок, повторное использование боковых ускорителей (оба с миссии Arabsat 6A).

 Посадка: боковые ускорители сядут на землю (LZ-1 и LZ-2), а центральный — на платформу OCISLY в 38 км от места старта, Атлантический океан.

Это будет первое повторное использование боковых ускорителей версии Block 5 для Falcon Heavy. 

[tnt22]

LightSail 2 mission highlights

The Planetary Society

Опубликовано: 14 июн. 2019 г.

This video shows brief highlights from LightSail 2, a crowdfunded space mission by The Planetary Society launching in June 2019. LightSail 2 aims to become the first spacecraft in Earth orbit propelled solely by sunlight. The goal is to raise LightSail 2's orbit by a measurable amount, showing that solar sailing is a viable means of propulsion for CubeSats—small, standardized spacecraft that are part of a global effort to lower the cost of space exploration.

(0:39)

[tnt22]

Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight 3 мин. назад

SpaceX Falcon Heavy (STP-2) Static Fire at KSC 39A is NET Tuesday.

Overview:
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2019/06/nasa-payloads-next-falcon-heavy-lz-1/[/COLOR] ...

Updates:
[COLOR=#438CCB]https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=48325.0 ...

Не ранее 18.06.2019

[tnt22]

https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-falcon-heavy-block-5-first-flight-proven-static-fire/

SpaceX's first flight-proven Falcon Heavy Block 5 rocket ready for static fire test

FALCON HEAVY BLOCK 5 IS SEEN HERE AHEAD OF THE ROCKET'S COMMERCIAL LAUNCH DEBUT, APRIL 2019. BOTH SIDE BOOSTERS (LEFT AND RIGHT) WILL LAUNCH AGAIN ON THE USAF'S STP-2 MISSION. (PAULINE ACALIN)

By Eric Ralph
Posted on June 16, 2019

According to NASASpaceflight.com, SpaceX is just ~48 hours away fr om Falcon Heavy Flight 3's critical static fire test, in which all 27 of the rocket's Merlin 1D engines will be briefly ignited. 

If the routine test goes as planned, SpaceX's third completed Falcon Heavy will be ready to lift off as early as 11:30 pm ET (03:30 UTC), June 24th. Atop the massive rocket will be the US Air Force's Space Test Program-2 (STP-2) mission, a collection of 24 small satellites from a variety of US government agencies and academic institutions. Practically speaking, STP is often more of an engineered excuse to launch, involving satellites and customers that are willing to accept higher risk than more valuable payloads, making it far easier for the US military to certify new technologies and new commercial launch vehicles.

As previously discussed on Teslarati, STP-2 is an extremely ambitious mission that aims to simultaneously certify or pave the way towards certification of critical capabilities. First and foremost, it will (barring serious anomalies) give the US military the data it needs to certify SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket for all national defense launches, giving ULA's Delta IV Heavy its first real competition in a decade and a half.


ULA's Delta IV Heavy lifts off in August 2018 during the launch of NASA's Parker Solar Probe. (Tom Cross)

Included under the umbrella of that catch-all certification is a sort of torture-test validation of the long-coast capabilities of SpaceX's Falcon upper stage. To successfully complete STP-2, the upper stage will be subjected to "four separate upper-stage engine burns, three separate deployment orbits, a final propulsive passivation maneuver, and a total mission duration of over six hours." It will likely be SpaceX's most technically-challenging launch ever.


To complete STP-2, Falcon Heavy's upper stage – essentially the same thing that flies on Falcon 9 – will be subjected to its most challenging mission profile yet. (SpaceX)

Finally, the US Air Force has decided that STP-2 presents an excellent opportunity to begin the process of certifying flight-proven SpaceX rockets for military launches. The STP-2-related work is more of a preliminary effort for the USAF to actually figure out how to certify flight-proven commercial rockets, but it will still be the first time the a dedicated US military mission has flown on a flight-proven launch vehicle. Down the road, the processes set in place thanks – in part – to STP-2 and Falcon Heavy may also apply to aspirational rockets like Blue Origin's New Glenn and ULA's "SMART" concept for Vulcan reuse. 

Still, New Glenn is unlikely to be ready for flight-proven military launches until the mid-2020s, while ULA has no plans to even attempt to implement Vulcan's "SMART" reuse until ~2026, meaning that military certification probably wont come until 2028-2030 at the earliest. SpaceX has thus earned roughly half a decade wh ere it will be the only viable US launch provider that can offer certified flight-proven hardware with an established record of reliability. Although the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) had a lone smallsat aboard SpaceX's February 2019 launch of PSN-6 and Spaceflight's GTO-1 mission, STP-2 will be the first time a dedicated Department of Defense mission has flown on flight-proven launch vehicle hardware since 1992 (STS-53).


Falcon Heavy side boosters B1052 and B1053 land at Landing Zones 1 and 2 (LZ-1/LZ-2) after their launch debut and Falcon Heavy's first commercial mission. Both will fly again as part of the STP-2 mission. (USAF – James Rainier)

Aside from flight-proven Falcon Heavy side boosters B1052 and B1053, STP-2 is expected to use a new center core, B1057. SpaceX is in the late stages of vehicle integration and should be nearly complete by Monday, June 17th in order to support a June 18th static fire. The specific static fire window is not yet public but Falcon Heavy will likely roll out to Pad 39A no less than 12 hours before.


On June 11th, Joshua Mendoza captured this exceptional view of Falcon Heavy Flight 3 integration inside SpaceX's Pad 39A hangar. Visible are the rocket's payload fairing (right), center core (middle), and upper stage (middle/left).

Teslarati photographers Tom Cross and Pauline Acalin will both be on site with a bevy of remote cameras to capture SpaceX's third Falcon Heavy before, during, and after liftoff. STP-2 will be Falcon Heavy's first attempted nighttime launch. Stay tuned for updates as we get closer to T-0!

[tnt22]

tnt22 пишет:
SpaceX Falcon Heavy (STP-2) Static Fire at KSC 39A is NET Tuesday.

Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight 04:19 PDT - 18 июн. 2019 г.

Now NET Wednesday.

Не ранее 19.06.2019

[PIN]

Старый пишет:
Это чего? Удельный импульс за 400 секунд

Речь о volumetric impulse, т.е. в пересчете на объем расходованного топлива. Для малых аппаратов - очень даже востребовано.
А УИ у таких двигателей сам по себе на 5% больше, чем у гидразиновых.
Шведские (теперь отчасти нет http://ecaps.space/news2017-07-07.php) HPGP аналогичные по назначению, уже, кстати, летают. На SkySat второго поколения.
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=32444.0;attach=546154

[tnt22]

https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/06/18/falcon-heavy-stp-2-launch-preps/

06/18/2019 17:48 Stephen Clark

SpaceX teams at the Kennedy Space Center are preparing for a hold-down firing of the Falcon Heavy rocket as soon as Wednesday ahead of a launch next Monday night with 24 satellites for the U.S. Air Force, NASA and NOAA.

The static fire test is a routine pre-launch checkout conducted before every SpaceX mission, in which the rocket's engines fire for several seconds while hold-down restraints keep the launcher on the pad.

The test was expected Tuesday, but SpaceX is now targeting the test-firing Wednesday at pad 39A.

Liftoff is scheduled for a four-hour window opening at 11:30 p.m. EDT Monday, June 24 (0330 GMT on June 25).

The Falcon Heavy is set to make its third flight next week, and the first for the U.S. Air Force, which is managing the mission through the military's Space Test Program.

SpaceX's heavy-lifted is made up of three Falcon 9 booster stages bolted together, with 27 Merlin engines producing more than 5 million pounds at liftoff, more than any other launch vehicle currently in service.

The transporter used to carry the Falcon Heavy to the pad and lift it vertical rolled down the ramp at pad 39A Monday morning to SpaceX's hangar. Cranes will hoist the Falcon Heavy onto the transporter for rollout to the launch pad.

Air Force and SpaceX officials convened a flight readiness review Monday and gave the green light to continue launch preparations in Florida.

Meanwhile, SpaceX's drone ship, "Of Course I Still Love You," is sailing toward a position in the Atlantic Ocean more than 600 miles downrange fr om Florida's Space Coast, wh ere the Falcon Heavy's core stage will attempt a landing after next week's launch.

The drone ship will be parked in roughly the same location as the last Falcon Heavy launch in April, which delivered the commercial Arabsat 6A communications satellite to orbit.

A regulatory filing by SpaceX with the Federal Communications Commission earlier this year suggested the drone ship would be positioned closer to shore, within about 24 miles (40 kilometers) of the launch pad.

That is no longer the case.

The Falcon Heavy's two side boosters will return to landing zones at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Next week's launch will mark SpaceX's eighth mission of the year, and the seventh launch of 2019 overall from Cape Canaveral, including SpaceX and ULA missions.

[tnt22]

Stephen Clark‏ @StephenClark1 7 мин. назад

SpaceX's drone ship is heading for a landing zone hundreds of miles off the Florida coast, multiple sources say. No center core landing close to shore, as suggested in an FCC filing earlier this year.

Spaceflight Now‏ @SpaceflightNow 8 мин. назад

A hotfire test ahead of SpaceX's 3rd Falcon Heavy launch is set for no earlier than Wednesday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, while the company's drone ship heads for a landing zone in the Atlantic Ocean for recovery of the rocket's center core.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/06/18/falcon-heavy-stp-2-launch-preps/ ...

[tnt22]

SpaceXFleet Updates‏ @SpaceXFleet 17 июн.

Tug Hollywood has departed Port Canaveral and is towing Of Course I Still Love You.

I'm assuming that the droneship is being taken out for a test/trial at the moment.





17 июн.

OCISLY is heading quite a way offshore. Digging for information still...




9 ч. назад

Of Course I Still Love You is heading further and further offshore. We're currently pending official word/paperwork to explain where the droneship is going.




4 ч. назад

Quick reminder: According the most recent filings, the droneship is meant to be stationed just 39km offshore for STP-2 next week. (Map here: http://spacexfleet.com/next )

OCISLY is currently 160km offshore and going further...

[tnt22]

https://www.afspc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1879889/smc-ready-for-summer-of-launch-liftoff/

SMC Ready for Summer of Launch Liftoff
SMC Public Affairs / Published June 18, 2019

LOS ANGELES AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --
Summer of 2019 heralds "Summer of Launch" for the Space and Missile Systems Center, the nation's launch vehicle procurer of choice. SMC leads the Department of Defense launch community as the organization celebrates its momentous milestones over a 31-day period.

Space Test Program-2, scheduled to launch on June 24, will be the first DOD mission to fly on SpaceX's Falcon Heavy and the first to use previously flown flight hardware. SpaceX is reusing the two side boosters from the Arabsat 6A Falcon Heavy mission flown on April 11, 2019, presenting SMC and SpaceX with a tremendous opportunity to gain insight into the process for refurbishing first-stage boosters on the Falcon family of rockets. This history-making and complex endeavor spotlights SMC's collaboration with commercial spaceflight's new entrants and its commitment to pursuing new, innovative ways of delivering reliable, responsive and leading-edge space capabilities to the Air Force, DOD and ultimately the Warfighter.
...
The future of launch awaits!

[tnt22]

AF SMC‏ @AF_SMC 11 мин. назад

The 3700 kg Integrated Payload Stack (IPS) for #STP2 has been completed! Have a look before it blasts off on the first #DoD Falcon Heavy launch! #SMC #SpaceStartsHere