SpaceX launched its heftiest rocket with 24 research satellites Tuesday, a middle-of-the-night rideshare featuring a deep space atomic clock, solar sail, a clean and green rocket fuel testbed, and even human ashes.
It was the third flight of a Falcon Heavy rocket, but the first ordered by the military.
The Defense Department mission is expected to provide data to certify the Falcon Heavy — and reused boosters — for future national security launches. It marked the military’s first ride on a recycled rocket.
Both side boosters landed back at Cape Canaveral several minutes after liftoff, just as they did after launching in April. But the new core booster missed an ocean platform, not unexpected for this especially difficult mission, SpaceX noted.
“It was a long shot,” tweeted SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk.
SpaceX did manage for the first time to catch the fairing, or nose cone, in a giant net on an offshore boat. The California-based company is trying to recover and reuse as many rocket parts as possible — rather than letting the pieces sink in the ocean — to drive down launch costs.
NASA signed up for a spot on this Falcon Heavy, along with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Planetary Society and Celestis Inc., which offers memorial flights into space……..read more
Source: AP News
