SpaceX Falcon Heavy with Block 5 boosters targeted for fall launch from KSC

Emre Kelly | Florida Today

SpaceX's three-core Falcon Heavy flagship that ensorcelled millions around the world earlier this year is slated to launch again no sooner than this fall with three upgraded boosters, according to the latest Air Force schedule.

Teams are targeting no earlier than late October for the rocket's next launch from Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A equipped with three of the company's next-generation Block 5 boosters, but this time there won't be a Tesla Roadster secured in the payload fairing – the Air Force gets the primary slot for its Space Technology Program-2 mission, which will include dozens of spacecraft.

Also hitching a ride will be NASA's Deep Space Atomic Clock, or DSAC, which is being spearheaded by the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as "the most precise atomic clock ever flown in space." Accurate measures of time are critical for all spacecraft, and NASA expects that DSAC will ultimately improve deep-space navigation.

The Planetary Society, a nonprofit founded in part by renowned astronomer Carl Sagan, is standing by as its LightSail 2 spacecraft undergoes testing at the Air Force Research Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico, ahead of its journey to KSC before launch. The organization says the sunlight-propelled spacecraft will attempt the first solar sail flight in Earth orbit.

[Former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman changing roles at SpaceX]

Falcon Heavy is expected to take flight with three new next-generation Block 5 boosters, the first of which launched in the "single stick" Falcon 9 configuration on May 11 with a Bangladeshi communications satellite. Aside from a modest increase in thrust produced by nine Merlin main engines, the boosters include improved reusability features that CEO Elon Musk says will allow the company to launch each one at least 10 times with minimal refurbishment. Previous-generation Block 4 boosters, by comparison, only flew twice before being retired or discarded.

SpaceX has not yet confirmed whether the STP-2 mission will feature tandem booster landings, which were a memorable highlight of Falcon Heavy's inaugural flight on Feb. 6 that drew more than 100,000 visitors to the Space Coast. The company has several options that include landings at Cape Canaveral and the Of Course I Still Love You Drone ship, a mix of the two, or expending boosters after liftoff, if necessary. A new East Coast drone ship, named A Shortfall of Gravitas, is also expected to enter into operation sometime soon.

But Falcon Heavy isn't the only "heavy" iteration of a rocket expected this year, as United Launch Alliance's Delta IV Heavy is scheduled to take NASA's high-profile Parker Solar Probe to orbit no earlier than July 31. That mission will approach within 4 million miles of the sun to help forecast major space weather events and their impacts on Earth.

In the meantime, the Space Coast will see SpaceX kick off the next launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station: Teams are targeting no earlier than the last few days of June for the final Block 4 Falcon 9 with supplies and science experiments destined for the International Space Station. The mission, known as CRS-15, marks the 15th of 20 missions under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract.

Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook at @EmreKelly.

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