Falcon Heavy to finally launch again?
After three years of delays due to payload issues, it now appears that the next Falcon Heavy launch will likely occur near the end of October.
The tentative date is October 28th, but this is not yet confirmed. Though a manifest of a half dozen Falcon Heavy launches has existed since 2019, and most were originally scheduled for launch in 2020-2021, none has taken place, all supposedly because of payload delays not issues with the rocket itself.
SpaceX officials are now saying that it plans to complete six Falcon Heavy launches within the next twelve months. Two are for the military, three for commercial communications companies, and the last is the Psyche mission for NASA. This last launch is delayed because of software issues discovered in June, only a few weeks before launch. Whether it can fix these issues in time for a new July 2023 launch window remains questionable.
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After three years of delays due to payload issues, it now appears that the next Falcon Heavy launch will likely occur near the end of October.
The tentative date is October 28th, but this is not yet confirmed. Though a manifest of a half dozen Falcon Heavy launches has existed since 2019, and most were originally scheduled for launch in 2020-2021, none has taken place, all supposedly because of payload delays not issues with the rocket itself.
SpaceX officials are now saying that it plans to complete six Falcon Heavy launches within the next twelve months. Two are for the military, three for commercial communications companies, and the last is the Psyche mission for NASA. This last launch is delayed because of software issues discovered in June, only a few weeks before launch. Whether it can fix these issues in time for a new July 2023 launch window remains questionable.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Apparently Elon wanted to cancel the Heavy several times, but Gwen said no. Business-wise, he was probably right, but it sure has come in handy for delivering serious muscle that other rockets were originally supposed to provide. Gotta love that beast!
I loved his definition of “success” for the first FH test flight: “Success will be that it gets far enough away from the launch pad to not destroy it, before it blows up.” He may well have a similar definition in mind for the first Starship flight, and this rocket will probably have two chances to destroy the pad, one going and one coming back!!
I am looking forward to this one.
I think time may for SpaceX to ban more customers.
The US Government needs to be moving to reusable Starship for this work, not for the inefficient and wasteful Falcon Heavy.
David Ross,
It would be impractical to move to a system that has not flown yet, when there is a proven system currently on the table.
It would impede the development of space exploration to forego the use of Falcon Heavy: SpaceX currently has no production heavy-lift competitor that is even partially reusable. Thus FH allows the space industry to launch heavy payloads cost-effectively today, while preparing for the ability to launch super-heavy payloads even more economically on 100% reusable platforms.
The heavy is economical even if they just crash the two side rockets.
They could use their oldest ones just for the heavy launches. The ones past 10 launches already.