Space News by Sandra Erwin — December 7, 2019
The upper stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 mission to the International Space Station Dec. 5 successfully performed a six-hour coast and a deorbit burn, a test that had been requested by the U.S. Air Force to demonstrate the vehicle can deliver national security payloads directly to geosynchronous Earth orbit.
“I got a thumbs up this morning,†SpaceX president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell told reporters Dec. 6 during a media roundtable at the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne.
This is a capability that is required for national security launches to GEO orbit. SpaceX has launched a military GPS satellite but those only require three-hour coasts.
More:
https://spacenews.com/falcon-9-cargo-mission-for-nasa-demonstrated-long-duration-coast-required-by-u-s-air-force/
