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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.