This week's SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launch was the first one of that type in 40 months, and whetted space fans' appetites for more.
Fans of Falcon Heavy, a massive rocket built by SpaceX, won't have that long of a gap next time after the epic Nov. 1 launch that hefted a military satellite to space. The next mission may launch as soon as December, although the timing has a lot of uncertainty.
There are two contenders for the next launch: another military satellite on behalf of Space Force, or a communications satellite for ViaSat to begin a trio of high-bandwidth communication launches.
ViaSat has not yet confirmed its October promise that the launch will go later this year, and likely won't do so until it releases financial results on Tuesday (Nov. 8), at the earliest. SpaceFlightNow's launch calendar suggests NET (no earlier than) December 2022, but the date is tentative and could push into the new year.
Related: Why SpaceX hasn't flown a Falcon Heavy rocket since 2019
Alternatively, a classified payload for Space Force (called USSF-67) is expected to go forward as soon as January 2023, according to an October report from SpaceFlightNow, which found possible clues for the satellite's functionality in the mission patch.
"Mission patches for the USSF-67 launch indicate it will carry the second spacecraft for the Space Force's Continuous Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM, or CBAS, program," the report stated. "The first CBAS satellite launched in 2018, and officials said then the satellite was designed to relay communications signals between senior leaders and military combatant commanders."
The long gap since the last launch in June 2019 was mostly due to delays with the delivery of payloads on the rocket's manifest, but in the meantime, SpaceX has been moving forward several times a month with launches of its much lighter Falcon 9 workhorse. It's already achieved more than 50 of those in 2022, which is a record.
Falcon Heavy itself is built on first-stage boosters, all modified versions of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, that can make vertical touchdowns after liftoff. (The core stage usually drops upon a SpaceX drone ship in the ocean, although Tuesday's launch saw the stage ditch in the ocean due to needing to use most of its fuel to boost the satellite to geostationary orbit.)
Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of "Why Am I Taller?" (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a book about space medicine. Follow her on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
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