SpaceX on Sunday launched a Falcon Heavy rocket on a mission for the U.S. Space Force, following a similar mission in November.
The Falcon Heavy launched from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:56 p.m. on Sunday, carrying the USSF-67 mission to a geosynchronous Earth orbit.
A video shared by Twitter user @sunsurfsteph shows a view of the launch from Ponce Inlet, on the coast about 35 miles north of the launch complex.
This was the second launch and landing of the rockets two side boosters, which were recovered on landing pads off the Florida coast. They previously supported the USSF-44 mission in November.
“The whole concept of reuse which SpaceX has matured in a tremendous way – you dont want to throw away rockets that can be used again if you dont have to,” Dr. Walter Lauderdale, Space Systems Command’s chief of Falcon Systems & Operations and USSF-44 Mission director, said in a December statement.
Lauderdale said the large rocket is necessary to deliver payloads to geosynchronous orbit, which is more difficult than low-Earth orbit.
The Long Duration Propulsive EELV (Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle) Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA), or LDPE-2, spacecraft was successfully used in USSF-44 to deploy multiple payloads over time. The LDPE-2 was again launched for USSF-67.
“The real benefit of the LDPE program is to essentially provide a ride for these smaller payloads,” Lt. Col. Michael Rupp, materiel leader for the LDPE and Rooster programs at SSC, said in December. “The mission partners are able to cheaply and rapidly test out and prototype these capabilities and insert them into future programs without having to spend a lot of time and resources doing it themselves. It enables that technology insertion to get after the fight now.”
The Falcon Heavy, currently the most powerful operational rocket in the world, debuted in 2018 when SpaceX CEO Elon Musk launched his own Tesla Roadster into space.
