Air Force certified Falcon Heavy for national security launch but more work needed to meet required

[Elderberry]

Space News by Sandra Erwin — September 21, 2019

SMC Commander Lt. Gen. Thompson: "They are fully certified now. But that doesn’t mean the work on the Falcon Heavy stops.”

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy on June 25 launched the Defense Department’s Space Test Program-2 mission with 24 satellites.

Although STP-2 was a U.S.government-funded space launch managed by the Air Force, it was not a National Security Space Launch mission. The NSSL program launches the nation’s most valuable and least risk-tolerant satellites for the military and the intelligence community.

Following its successful STP-2 launch, there was some confusion as to whether Falcon Heavy is fully certified to fly satellites in the NSSL program.

According to the Air Force, the answer is yes, but not completely.

“I certified them to compete last year,” Lt. Gen. John Thompson, commander of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, told SpaceNews in an interview last week.

But that was only the first step. “One of the requirements behind certification is to fly three missions,” Thompson said. The STP-2 launch was Falcon Heavy’s third. It flew its first demonstration mission in February 2018, followed by Arabsat 6A in April 2019.

“They have completed that. They are fully certified now,” said Thompson. “But that doesn’t mean the work on the Falcon Heavy stops.”

More: https://spacenews.com/air-force-certified-falcon-heavy-for-national-security-launch-but-more-work-needed-to-meet-required-orbits/