SpaceX's Shotwell: Expect a 'couple more' Falcon Heavy launches this year

COLORADO SPRINGS – The Space Coast can expect a "couple more" of the massively popular Falcon Heavy launches from Kennedy Space Center this year, SpaceX's president and chief operating officer said during a dinner event Thursday night.

"We have a big year in front of us," Gwynne Shotwell said during a closing dinner at the 34th Space Symposium. "We've got a couple more heavys to fly, which will be very exciting."

"For satellites this time – not cars," Shotwell said jokingly.

The first of those Falcon Heavy launches from pad 39A is expected this summer, when the 27-engine, three-core rocket will take an Air Force mission to orbit with NASA science spacecraft riding as secondary payloads. And the second mission will take Saudi Arabia's Arabsat-6A communications satellite, which was built in Colorado, to orbit sometime in late 2018.

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SpaceX has not commented on booster recovery details surrounding those missions and whether or not Cape Canaveral and / or drone ship landings will be involved. The company could also opt to expend at least one of the boosters, too.

On SpaceX's workhorse vehicle, Shotwell said the company has "a ton of Falcon 9s to fly" and a "bunch more reflights to do," referring to launching previously flown versions of the booster.

Early next month, SpaceX is also planning to debut the "Block V" version of its Falcon 9 rocket, which is designed for greater reusability. The mission will take Bangladesh’s first geostationary satellite, labeled Bangabandhu-1, to orbit from KSC’s pad 39A.

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

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