Author Topic: Falcon Heavy’s first commercial launch to pave the way for reusable rockets in NS missions  (Read 754 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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Space News by Sandra Erwin 3/25/2019

Falcon Heavy’s first commercial launch to pave the way for reusable rockets in national security missions

The Arabsat 6A launch — the first by Falcon Heavy since the rocket debuted in February 2018 — will help advance the certification of the vehicle for national security missions.

U.S. Air Force officials will be keeping a close eye on Falcon Heavy’s upcoming Arabsat 6A commercial communications satellite launch that is scheduled to take place in early April.

The results of that mission are significant for the Air Force as SpaceX plans to recover both side-mounted boosters and refurbish them so they can be reused for an Air Force launch a few weeks later.

The Arabsat 6A launch — the first by Falcon Heavy since the rocket debuted in February 2018 — also would help advance the certification of the vehicle for national security missions, which the Air Force has not yet completed.

Before, during and after the Arabsat launch, “we will take an up-close and personal look at how they do things,” said Randy Kendall, vice president of launch program operations at the Aerospace Corp. The company advises and supports the Air Force on all aspects of national security launch, including the certification of new-entrant vehicles.

The observations and data from the Arabsat mission could determine how soon the Air Force will be ready to certify reused boosters for national security missions, Kendall told SpaceNews. “This will further refine our strategy for the mission assurance activities that we have to conduct to get comfortable with reused boosters,” he said. “Reusability is definitely coming soon. We’re getting close.”

More: https://spacenews.com/falcon-heavys-first-commercial-launch-to-pave-the-way-for-reusable-rockets-in-national-security-missions/