Update: SpaceX is now aiming to launch its first Falcon. Heavy rocket of 2023 on Sunday, Jan. 15 at 5:56 p.m. EST (2256 GMT).
SpaceX’s mighty Falcon Heavy rocket will be back in action on Sunday (Jan. 15), and you can watch the liftoff live.
A Falcon Heavy on a classified mission for the US Space Force named USSF-67 is scheduled to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on Sunday at 5:56 a.m. EST (2255 GMT).
Watch it live here on Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly through the company. When the time comes, we will host a webcast of the company.
Connected: Why SpaceX hasn’t flown the Falcon Heavy rocket since 2019
Sunday’s launch will be the fifth overall for the Falcon Heavy. The deadly rocket debuted in February 2018 with a memorable test flight that sent SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster into orbit around the Sun, with a spacesuit-clad mannequin named Starman in the driver’s seat.
The Falcon Heavy launched again in April 2019 and June 2019, sending operational satellites up each time. But the rocket didn’t lift off again until November of last year, on the USSF-44 mission for the Space Force. According to space industry analysts, the 40-month difference was primarily due to delays in preparing customer payloads.
Like USSF-44, USSF-67 is a classified mission. However, we do know something about the upcoming flight.
The main payload is a military communications satellite called Continuous Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM 2, which the Falcon Heavy will send into geostationary orbit about 22,200 miles (35,700 km) above Earth. Also flying Saturday is a rideshare spacecraft called the Long Duration Propulsive ESPA (LDPE)-3A, a payload adapter that can hold up to six small satellites, according to EverydayAstronaut.com. (opens in new tab),
LDPE-3A will carry five Space Force payloads on USSF-67. “Two of those operational prototypes provide advanced situational awareness and one operational prototype crypto/interface encryption payload provides secure space-to-ground communications capability,” Space Force officials said in an emailed statement Friday (Jan. 13).
The Falcon Heavy consists of three modified SpaceX Falcon 9 first stages, strapped together. The central booster is topped with an upper stage carrying the payload.
Falcon Heavy’s first stages are reusable, as are Falcon 9’s. The two side boosters will be the second launch for USSF-67; Space Force officials said he also flew on USSF-44. The USSF-67 core booster has not been flown before.
If all goes according to plan, the two side boosters will return to Earth shortly after liftoff on Saturday, making a vertical touchdown at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station next to KSC. The central booster would not return, but would plunge into the Atlantic Ocean.
USSF-67 is part of a busy week for SpaceX. The company also plans to launch 51 of its Starlink Internet satellites into low Earth orbit atop a Falcon 9 at Ja. 19. You can also watch that mission here on Space.com.
Mike Wall is the author of “out there (opens in new tab)(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Carl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaelwall (opens in new tab), Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) either Facebook (opens in new tab),