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SpaceX's Falcon Heavy launches classified USSF-67 mission to geosynchronous orbit; lands boosters successfully for 163rd and 164th time

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The USSF-67 mission carried a military communications satellite and five smaller payloads to orbit.


SpaceX's powerful Falcon Heavy rocket now has five flights under its belt.

A Falcon Heavy launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on Sunday (Jan. 15) at 5:56 p.m. EST (2256 GMT), kicking off a classified mission for the U.S. Space Force called USSF-67.

"Liftoff of USSF-67. Go Falcon Heavy! Go Space Force!" a mission team member said over SpaceX's communications line during the launch, which the company webcast live.

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A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launches from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 15, 2023 on the USSF-67 mission for the U.S. Space Force. It was the fifth-ever Falcon Heavy launch. (Image credit: SpaceX)

The Falcon Heavy consists of three modified first stages of SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket. These three are strapped together, the central one sporting a payload-carrying upper stage.

Falcon Heavy first-stage boosters are designed to be reusable, like those of the Falcon 9, and two of them came back to Earth successfully on Sunday: USSF-67's side boosters touched down safely at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which is next door to KSC, eight minutes after launch. It was the second landing for each of them; both participated in USSF-44, a Falcon Heavy mission for the Space Force that launched on Nov. 1, 2022.

The central booster on USSF-67 was a new vehicle, and it will not get a chance to fly again. It ditched into the Atlantic Ocean as planned not long after liftoff on Sunday, having used too much of its fuel to come back home again.

The Falcon Heavy's upper stage, meanwhile, continued carrying its payloads to orbit. But we didn't get to see much of that journey; SpaceX ended the launch webcast just after booster touchdown, at the request of the Space Force. It's unclear when the payloads are scheduled to be deployed.

The primary satellite on USSF-67 is Continuous Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM 2 (CBAS-2), which is headed to geostationary orbit, about 22,200 miles (35,700 kilometers) above Earth.

CBAS-2 will "provide communications relay capabilities in support of our senior leaders and combatant commanders," Space Force officials said in an emailed statement on Friday (Jan. 13). "The mission of CBAS-2 is to augment existing military satellite communication capabilities and continuously broadcast military data through space-based satellite relay links."

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The two Falcon Heavy side boosters landed safely at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station eight minutes after launching the USSF-67 mission for the U.S. Space Force on Jan. 15, 2023. (Image credit: SpaceX)

Also going up on USSF-67 was 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).

Five of those slots were filled on USSF-67, the Space Force statement revealed. LDPE-3A carried two satellites, called Catcher and WASSAT, for Space Systems Command, the arm of the Space Force that's responsible for developing and sustaining space capabilities for American warfighters.

Catcher is a prototype sensor designed to keep tabs on possible hazards caused by space weather, EverydayAstronaut.com reported. "WASSAT most likely stands for Wide Area Search Satellite, which is some sort of camera/sensor designed to monitor other satellites and gather data on their trajectories and anomalies like changes of their orbits," the outlet wrote.

The other three satellites riding aboard LDPE-3A were developed by the Space Force's Space Rapid Capabilities Office (SRCO), which aims to get new off-Earth assets aloft quickly and efficiently.

"The SRCO payloads include two operational prototypes for enhanced situational awareness and an operational prototype crypto/interface encryption payload providing secure space-to-ground communications capability," Space Force officials wrote in Friday's statement.

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SpaceX's fifth Falcon Heavy rocket in a hangar at NASA's Kennedy Space Center ahead of a Jan. 15, 2023 launch. SpaceX posted this photo on Jan. 7. (Image credit: SpaceX via Twitter)

November's USSF-44 was the first Falcon Heavy mission in more than three years, a drought that was caused primarily by customer delays in getting their payloads ready for liftoff. The other three Falcon Heavy flights (in addition to USSF-44 and USSF-67) launched in June 2019, April 2019 and February 2018.

That debut liftoff, a test flight, was quite memorable. It sent SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk's red Tesla Roadster into orbit around the sun, with a spacesuit-clad mannequin named Starman at the wheel. The car will likely keep cruising through deep space for millions of years before finally slamming into Venus or Earth, orbit-modeling studies suggest.

The Falcon Heavy's 27 first-stage Merlin engines generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, according to its SpaceX specifications page(opens in new tab). The Heavy was the most powerful rocket in operation until NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission lifted off on Nov. 16.

That flight, which sent an uncrewed Orion capsule to lunar orbit and back, was the debut launch for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket, which produces about 8.8 million pounds of thrust.

SpaceX could wrest the rocket-power title back from NASA soon, however. The company is gearing up for the first orbital test flight of its giant Starship Mars rocket, which will use 33 Raptor engines to roar off the pad with a mind-blowing 16 million pounds of thrust — more than any rocket ever built.


 
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6 boosters with 10 or greater landings
21 boosters that are active.
11 retired/expended


B1046: 4
B1047: 3
B1048: 5
B1049: 11
B1050: 1
B1051:
14
B1052: 7
B1053: 2

B1054: 1
B1055: 1

B1056: 4
B1057: 1
B1058: 15
B1059: 6
B1060: 15
B1061: 11
B1062: 11
B1063: 8
B1064: 2 (Falcon Heavy side booster reserved for US military )
B1065
: 2 (Falcon Heavy side booster reserved for US military)
B1067: 8
B1068
: 0 (Falcon Heavy core booster)
B1069: 4

B1070: 1 (Falcon Heavy core booster)
B1071: 6
B1072: 0 (Falcon Heavy side booster)
B1073: 5
B1074: 0 (Falcon Heavy core booster)
B1075: 0 (Falcon Heavy side booster)
B1076: 2 (Falcon Heavy side booster)
B1077: 1
B1078: 0
B1079: 0 (Falcon Heavy core booster)
 

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SPACE SYSTEMS COMMAND MEDIA RELEASE SPACE SYSTEMS COMMAND


Systems Command successfully launches second National Security Space Launch mission for U.S. Space Force on SpaceX Falcon Heavy


EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – Space Systems Command (SSC) and their mission partners successfully launched a U.S. Space Force mission during an on-time liftoff at 5:56 p.m. Eastern (2:56 p.m. Pacific) today from Launch Complex-39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida, using SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket. The mission, formally titled USSF67, is comprised of two co-manifested satellites used to transmit military communications data and transport payloads to space. Multiple commercial and government partners worked together to ensure the success of this multifaceted and important mission.

“We had another fantastic launch today on a Falcon Heavy, just two months after our first National Security Space Launch mission using this launch system, and while the launch itself was impressive, I am most proud of the fact that we placed important capabilities into space that help our nation stay ahead of very real and growing threats,” said Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, program executive officer for Assured Access to Space.

“We’re certainly on a roll with 96 consecutive successful national security space launches, and the takeaway is that we’ve really got a spectacular team working together on our most challenging launch profiles to ensure our mission partners get on orbit with confidence.”

The forward spacecraft, SSC’s Continuous Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM (CBAS)-2, is a satellite destined for geosynchronous orbit to provide communications relay capabilities in support of our senior leaders and combatant commanders. The mission of CBAS-2 is to augment existing military satellite communication capabilities and continuously broadcast military data through space-based satellite relay links.

The second spacecraft, the Long Duration Propulsive ESPA (LDPE)-3A, is used to rapidly place multiple, diverse payloads into orbit and provide critical data to inform and influence future U.S. Space Force programs. This LDPE-3A mission includes two SSC payloads: catcher and WASSAT, and three payloads developed by the Space Rapid Capabilities Office (SRCO). The SRCO payloads include two operational prototypes for enhanced situational awareness, and an operational prototype crypto/interface encryption payload providing secure space-to-ground communications capability. The LDPE spacecraft will continue to provide access to space for multiple DoD space Science & Technology (S&T) demonstration experiments.

“This is a huge win for the entire space enterprise,” said Col. Joseph Roth, director, Innovation and Prototyping Acquisition Delta. “Not only are we significantly increasing our launch and on-orbit mission capabilities, we are also demonstrating and strengthening our space operations footprint to ensure we can rapidly respond to any developing threats from our adversaries. My hats off to the entire total force team that made this launch a huge success”.

This Falcon Heavy launch, which took place at Launch Complex-39A,was the first SpaceX mission ordered under the Space Force’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 contract. NSSL Phase 2 contracts use commercial-like contracts and pricing, saving significant taxpayer dollars while providing stability to the industry base, contributing to more efficient buying practices as well as manifest flexibility that benefits government and commercial customers alike.

A prominent innovation developed by SpaceX and adopted by the U.S. Space Force is booster reusability. The side boosters for USSF-67 were the same ones used for USSF-44, which launched from the Eastern Range on Nov. 1, 2022. The efficiencies garnered from reusability benefit all customers, adding flexibility to a dynamic launch queue and cost savings.

SSC is the U.S. Space Force field command responsible for rapidly developing, acquiring, equipping, fielding and sustaining lethal and resilient space capabilities. SSC mission capability areas include launch acquisition and operations, communications and positioning, navigation and timing (PNT), space sensing, battle management command, control and communications (BMC3), and space domain awareness & combat power. SSC is headquartered at Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo, Calif.
 
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