Ahead of what will likely be its third flight this yr, Falcon Heavy is being prepared for the record-breaking launch of EchoStar 24. Also generally known as Jupiter 3, this payload will likely be the heaviest satellite launched to a geostationary transfer orbit, massing 9.2 tonnes. As such, Falcon Heavy might want to expend its center core to achieve additional performance, like what has been done on several recent missions.
Falcon Heavy is scheduled to lift off from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A at 11:04 PM EDT on July 26 (03:04 UTC on July 27). The launch window extends for 99 minutes, allowing time for holds if needed before propellant loading. Although the core will likely be expended, the 2 side boosters will perform return-to-launch site landings at SpaceX’s Landing Zones 1 and a couple of.
2023 is popping out to be the busiest yr to this point for Falcon Heavy — which has at all times been a low-flight cadence rocket. Following its demo mission in 2018 and two operational missions in 2019, it was not until three years later in 2022 that SpaceX’s strongest rocket took to the skies over again.
In only the primary half of this yr, the vehicle flew twice — once for america Space Force on the USSF-67 mission, and the opposite for ViaSat. The latter mission was notable for being the primary and only fully-expendable Falcon Heavy, needing maximum performance to deliver ViaSat-3 Americas and two secondary payloads to a near-geostationary orbit.
Jupiter 3 alternatively won’t need the rocket’s maximum performance. The satellite will likely be deployed right into a geostationary transfer orbit — much less demanding than a near-geostationary orbit. A geostationary transfer orbit has an apogee, or its highest point, roughly 35,000 kilometers above Earth’s surface, and a perigee, or lowest point in its orbit, around 200 kilometers up. Nevertheless, the precise numbers can vary barely between missions.
Regardless that its injection orbit is a standard one, Jupiter 3 will likely be demanding in its own right. The satellite has a mass of 9,200 kilograms, making it each the heaviest geostationary satellite and heaviest industrial satellite ever launched, breaking the present record by nearly two tonnes.
This immense mass is on account of the hardware needed to support the satellite’s high bandwidth. With a capability of 500 gigabits per second, Jupiter 3 will double the throughput of the present two-satellite Jupiter fleet.
The Jupiter satellite fleet — owned and operated by Hughes — is geared toward delivering space-based web to customers on Earth. This service, called HughesNet, provides connectivity to airplanes, ocean vessels, rural communities, and impoverished regions all over the world. Jupiter 3 particularly will operate from the 95 degrees East slot in geostationary orbit, allowing it to serve the North and South American continents.
With its high capability, Jupiter 3 will enable rural customers to achieve download speeds of as much as 100 megabits per second, comparable to average download speeds from SpaceX’s Starlink satellite web service. In fact, the 2 services differ greatly in latency, with HughesNet having a mean latency of roughly 600 milliseconds on account of its high orbit, in comparison with Starlink’s 60 milliseconds. This makes a difference in high-paced web activities like gaming but may have a lesser effect on more mundane tasks.
To support the immense satellite, Jupiter 3 is loaded with nearly 3,500 kilograms of propellants and powered by two seven-panel solar arrays. The propellant will likely be used for each raising the satellite right into a geostationary orbit in addition to stationkeeping throughout its roughly 20-year service life.
To organize for its flight, Jupiter 3 was encapsulated inside Falcon Heavy’s fairing and trucked to the Horizontal Integration Facility at Launch Complex 39A. Once contained in the hangar, the fairing was rotated horizontally to be integrated onto the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle. Currently, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy only support horizontal payload integration. Nevertheless, vertical integration methods have been proposed and can eventually should be constructed for some upcoming NASA and United States government payloads.
Falcon Heavy within the hangar at LC-39A in Florida pic.twitter.com/EAOp1Nbvqb
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 21, 2023
Deviating from every previous Falcon Heavy launch, SpaceX opted to not perform a static fire test. A static fire is a pre-launch rehearsal where the vehicle — normally without the payload on top — is rolled out onto the launch pad, loaded with propellants, and subjected to a launch-like countdown. At T0, the engines ignite for a transient firing before shutting down. The rocket is then rolled back into the Horizontal Integration Facility for final work.
Omitting a static fire has not been unusual for Falcon 9 missions, especially those flying a flight-proven booster. Nevertheless, this can be a unique move for Falcon Heavy, as every prior launch had a pre-flight static fire.
This is probably going on account of the 2 side boosters B1064 and B1065 having already flown twice before. And although the middle core B1074 is brand recent, the Falcon rocket family has been extremely reliable, having a stretch of over 200 successful launches in a row, likely playing into the omission of a static fire.
With the Jupiter 3 satellite and its fairing integrated on top, Falcon Heavy was rolled out onto the launch pad at Launch Complex 39Aand raised to vertical ahead of launch.
The countdown begins around T-10 hours with the vehicle being powered up. At T-50 minutes, all three first-stage boosters will begin to be full of a refined type of kerosene generally known as RP-1. Around five minutes later, liquid oxygen (LOX) will begin flowing in as well.
The second stage will then follow, with RP-1 loading commencing at T-35 minutes and LOX around T-18.5 minutes.
Propellant loading will proceed until just a number of minutes before liftoff to make sure it’s as chilled and dense as possible, giving the vehicle one of the best possible performance.
At T-7 minutes, the 27 first-stage Merlin 1D engines are chilled as a small amount of LOX is trickled through their plumbing. That is to avoid thermal shock at ignition when LOX and RP-1 begin flowing through the engine in earnest.
When the count reaches T-1 minute, the vehicle itself will take control of the countdown followed by the propellant tanks being pressurized for flight.
At T-3 seconds, first-stage ignition will begin, because the boosters are ignited in a staggered pattern to avoid inducing extreme stress on the vehicle. If all engines and vehicle systems are operating nominally, Falcon Heavy will lift off from Pad 39A to T0.
Lower than a minute after leaving the bottom, the vehicle will reach max-Q, the moment of maximum aerodynamic forces.
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Falcon Heavy boosters B1064 and B1065 on Landing Zones 1 and a couple of at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station after the USSF-67 mission earlier this yr. (Credit: SpaceX)
The side boosters will likely be the primary components to detach from the vehicle, shutting down and separating two and a half minutes after liftoff. B1064 and B1065 will flip and reignite three of their nine Merlin 1D engines to spice up back to Cape Canaveral. The identical three engines will reignite twice more — once for the entry burn to decelerate the boosters and protect them from re-entry heating, and again for the landing burn. The 2 cores will land at Landing Zones 1 and a couple of, ready for minor refurbishments ahead of their next flight.
The middle core will burn for around a minute and a half longer, further accelerating the second stage and Jupiter 3 payload. The middle core, like on the past three Falcon Heavy missions, will likely be expended to supply additional performance to the payload.
The core and second stages will separate, followed shortly after by second-stage ignition and payload fairing separation. Like most up-to-date Falcon missions, the fairings will deploy a parachute and land softly within the Atlantic Ocean to be recovered and reused.
Stage two will inject itself and Jupiter 3 right into a near-circular low-Earth parking orbit, where they’ll then coast together prior to the second stage reigniting. Once it has reached the right position in space, the second stage will ignite its Merlin 1D vacuum engine for the second and final time, accelerating Jupiter 3 to a correct geostationary transfer orbit.
Jupiter 3 will then be deployed from the second stage, and use its onboard propulsion to achieve its final geostationary orbit.
2023 is ready to be the busiest yr yet for Falcon Heavy. Jupiter 3 will likely be its third flight this yr, with as much as two more missions left on the roster before 2024. NASA’s Psyche mission will likely be the vehicle’s next launch, whose complex flight profile means it must fly between October 5 and 23 of this yr or it’s going to be delayed again by around a yr. Currently, the spacecraft is heading in the right direction for launch.
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