USSF-67 in the evening sunset just before its flight and waiting for the release clamps to open
Mission Rundown: SpaceX Falcon Heavy 5 - USSF-67
Written: January 16, 2023
Pleading the fifth … - …2 month later
SpaceX will be launching the USSF-67 mission for the U.S. Space Force on a Falcon Heavy rocket. This Falcon Heavy is composed of a new block 5 center core ‘B1070’ and the two flight proven block 5 side boosters; B1064-2 and B1065-2.
USSF-67 launched at 17:56 EST - 22:56 UTC on January 15, 2023. The Falcon Heavy will be lifting off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
After burning for about 2 and a half minutes, the side boosters will separate from the core booster and boost back to the launch site for a landing at Landing Zones LZ-1 & LZ-2.
The core booster will continue burning for another minute, before shutting down and separating from the second stage.
The core booster will not be recovered and will crash land approximately 1 372 km downrange in the Atlantic Ocean. Given a guess of 11% increase in speed and thereby range compared to FH-3 STP-2 attempt to land on OCISLY 1 236 km downrange.
Screenshot of Falcon Heavy mission view by Geoff Barret - A contemporary graphic can be found here
SpaceX performed a 7 second static fire test of the Falcon Heavy USSF-44 at 17:45 EST on January 10, 2023 while waiting for the east coast launch out of Cape Canaveral.
Falcon Heavy will have completed its fifth mission since the first testflight.
There is confusion about the Y axis, so I might be wrong about it. MY is closest to the tower
Falcon Heavy is constructed by joining of three Falcon 9 boosters side by side with a central long mission duration second stage carrying the payload into orbit.
The fairings will be recovered a record breaking 1439 km downrange by recovery vessel Bob, who will lift both fairings out of the water and sail them back for refurbishment. Bob is named after Demo-2 Astronaut Bob Behnken.
SpaceX is the first entity ever that recovers and reflies its fairings. After being jettisoned, the two fairing halves will use cold gas thrusters to orientate themselves as they descend through the atmosphere. Once at a lower altitude, they will deploy drogue chutes and parafoils to help them glide down to a soft landing for recovery.
Lately it’s apparent that the fairings are actively being aiming for the droneship in order to speed up the recovery process and cut corners of the time table. The fairing is actively breaking its speed and turning back before deploying its parachute at the last moment. It’s not clear whether or not the cold gas nitrogen thrusters are capable of doing a boost back ‘push’ so the fairings stop their forward momentum mid flight.
Comparison of Type 1 and 2 with measurements based on pixels - Type 2 are 5-6 inches thicker
There are three known types of 34 x 17 foot fairings used by SpaceX to protect payload during ascent through the atmosphere. The first type had 10 evenly spaced ventilation ports in a circle on the bottom part of the fairings. This type was not aerodynamic enough to carry a parachute and ACS - Attitude Control System.
The aerodynamic balance during descent must have made them prone to stalling, or they burned up too easily. ACS gas tanks, flight orientation computers and ACS thrusters must have helped with these problems during development of type 2 fairings.
The second type is a slightly thicker fairing with only 8 evenly spaced ventilation ports in a circle on the bottom part of the fairings. The ventilation ports release the pressurized Nitrox gas during ascent, but let seawater in which makes it harder to refurbish the fairings after recovery from the ocean.
The new third type has 8 ventilation ports in pair’s near the edge of the fairings. Some old type 2 fairings have been rebuilt and reused in Starlink launches. That have been a test program to develop the type 3 fairings to prevent saltwater from the ocean from flooding and sinking the fairing, and makes refurbishment toward the next flight easier.
Falcon fairings halfs have been recovered and reused since 2019. Improved design changes and overall refurbishment procedures have decreased the effects of water landings and led to an increased recovery rate of fairings.
The secret Payload
USSF-67 with the secondary LDPE ESPA-3A payload were launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy on January 15, 2023 at 17:56:00 EST.
The payloads onboard included two space vehicles, the Long Duration Propulsive EELV Secondary Payload Adaptor (LDPE ESPA-3) and the Continuous Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM 2 (CBAS-2) satellite.
The LDPE ESPA-3A spacecraft will deliver some small payloads to orbit that will advance communications and space weather sensing. LDPE ESPA-3A is envisioned as a ‘freight train to space’ for experiments and prototypes in geosynchronous high Earth orbit and will boost satellites to their final destination.
Because it is more cost effective, more companies with smaller satellites can make use of this ‘train’, increasing the speed and frequency of delivering similar payloads to orbit.
Like the LDPE-3A, the Shepard Demonstration is designed to test new technologies to enhance safe and responsible rendezvous and proximity operations, providing an affordable path to space for hosted and separable payloads.
The USSF-67 mission provides a range of capabilities such as enabling safe navigation, secure communications, detection and identification of a wide range of threats, and other critical functions.
The second stage is painted partial gray to prevent the RP-1 from freezing solid during the several hours long transfer trip to its geostationary orbit position. The Sun’s heat will not easily be reflected by the gray paint thus transferring surface heat to the RP-1.
The second stage will reignite to circularize the transfer orbit thus saving fuel consumption in USSF-44, so it will have an extra long service life in its geostationary slot. The military payloads may be deployed depending on their individual mission profiles.
After the last deployment there will probably not be enough propellant in the second stage tanks to deorbit. The fifth Falcon Heavy second stage will be the 30th large piece of space debris that will take decades to deorbit on its own.
Maybe the 2nd stage should be equipped with a similar ESPA passive payload packet from the Military so it can do some good or do a bit of science.
The 2nd stage is with its avionics package in itself a kind of a satellite bus, it’s missing solar panels for power, gyroscopes for orientation, various military - science instruments and even Hall effect thrusters to deorbit itself with. Or chase space junk.
Falcon Heavy Block 5
Falcon Heavy stands 70 meters tall, weighs about 1.4 million kg at liftoff, and produces a thrust of approximately 22,241 kN from its 27 Merlin 1D engines. The rocket is capable of delivering 63.8 tonnes to low Earth orbit and 26.7 tonnes to geostationary transfer orbit.
SpaceX photo of FH3 STP-2 hanging under the loft cranes in the Horizontal Integration Hangar
Falcon Heavy is a partially reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured by SpaceX. It is derived from the Falcon 9 vehicle and consists of a strengthened Falcon 9 first stage as the center core with two additional Falcon 9-like first stages as strap-on boosters. Falcon Heavy has the highest payload capacity of any currently operational launch vehicle, and the third-highest capacity of any rocket ever to reach orbit, trailing the Saturn V and Energia.
The combined thrust of the Falcon Heavy 27 Merlin 1D# is 2/3 of the first stage thrust of the five F1 engines on the Saturn V rocket that lifted mankind through the atmosphere on its way to the Moon. This means that Falcon Heavy is almost capable of a Lunar mission like the Apollo Saturn V was. Two launches of Falcon Heavy should be able to do it.
Falcon Heavy consists of a structurally strengthened and therefore heavier Falcon 9 as the "core" component, with two additional Falcon 9 first stages without interstages but with nose cone acting as liquid fuel strap-on boosters, which is conceptually similar to Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Delta IV Heavy launcher.
The rocket was designed to meet or exceed all current requirements of human rating. The structural safety margins are 40% above flight loads, higher than the 25% margins of other rockets. The Falcon 9 tank walls and domes are made from Aluminium–lithium alloy. SpaceX uses an all-friction stir welded tank. Falcon Heavy was designed from the outset to carry humans into space and it would restore the possibility of flying crewed missions to the Moon or Mars.
The interstage, which connects the upper and lower stage for Falcon 9, is a carbon fiber aluminum core composite structure. Stage separation occurs via reusable separation collets and a pneumatic pusher system. The second stage tank of Falcon 9 is simply a shorter version of the first stage tank and uses most of the same tooling, material, and manufacturing techniques. This approach reduces overall costs during production.
The Falcon Heavy includes first-stage recovery systems, to allow SpaceX to return the first stage boosters to the launch site as well as recover the first stage core following landing at an Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship barge after completion of primary mission requirements. These systems include four deployable landing legs, which are locked against each first-stage tank core during ascent. Excess propellant reserved for Falcon Heavy first-stage recovery operations will be diverted for use on the primary mission objective, if required, ensuring sufficient performance margins for successful missions.
The nominal payload capacity to a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) is 8,000 kg (18,000 lb) with recovery of all three first-stage cores versus 26,700 kg (58,900 lb) in fully expendable mode. The Falcon Heavy can also inject a 16,000 kg (35,000 lb) payload into GTO if only the two boosters are recovered.
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