The annual Sun ‘n Fun Aerospace Expo in Lakeland, Florida, concluded yesterday. On Saturday evening, drones and fireworks lit up the sky, and during the performance, those drones took on a familiar form – a Falcon Heavy.
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Elon Musk founded SpaceX on March 14, 2002, paving the way for two remarkable decades transforming the aerospace industry in ways never thought possible.
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A SpaceX Falcon Heavy booster, B1023, arrived at the new exhibit building, Gateway, for permanent display. This booster previously launched the Thaicom 8 satellite and then was converted to a Falcon Heavy side booster for the demo flight.
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This week Inspiration4 launched into orbit and returned to Earth, SpaceX launched polar Starlink satellites from the West Cost, and a Falcon Heavy side booster will be put on display.
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In SpaceX’s most recent Falcon user’s guide, they released more detailed information about the long-awaited extended payload fairings was released; and it seems that these larger fairing halves will not be recovered.
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This week, the focus has been on Blue Origin. On Tuesday, they completed the first crewed flight of New Shepard, flying the oldest and youngest person to ever visit space.
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SpaceX has stood out from other rocket companies in their determination to reuse their Falcon 9 boosters as much as possible. Below are some FAQs of booster reuse.
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SpaceX launched the Space Test Program 2 (STP-2) mission in early June 25th, 2019. STP-2 was launched on the third flight of Falcon Heavy, reusing the side boosters from the Arabsat-6A launch earlier that year.
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While the Falcon 9 continues to smash launch cadence records with already 9 flights this year, its bigger sibling the Falcon Heavy still hasn’t been seen since 2019. SpaceX plans to launch 1 maybe even 2 this year if schedules can hold, the first of which is getting closer to being ready for flight.
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A key part of NASA’s Artemis program is Gateway, a lunar outpost 1/6 the size of its cousin the International Space Station. It will be used as the orbital research lab for Earth-faring astronauts destined to explore the lunar surface and possibly as a rest stop for those heading to Mars. The first two modules are planned to launch in 2024 on top of the party pleaser Falcon Heavy rocket.
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