SpaceX's most powerful active rocket, Falcon Heavy lifted off at 2256 UTC on Sunday (Jan. 15) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, on a US Space Force's classified USSF-67 mission, to a geosynchronous Earth orbit.
Eight minutes after liftoff, the rocket's reusable first-stage boosters returned to Earth successfully, touching down safely at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which is next door to KSC. This was the second landing for each of the boosters; both participated in USSF-44 mission for the Space Force that launched on Nov. 1, 2022.
The Falcon Heavy first stage consists of three boosters which are modified first stages of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. The three are strapped together, with the central one sporting a payload-carrying upper stage. The non-reusable central booster splashed into the Atlantic Ocean as planned not long after liftoff, having used too much of its fuel to come back home again. The Falcon Heavy's upper stage, meanwhile, continued on its journey to orbit carrying its payloads.
SpaceX ended the launch webcast just after first stage booster touchdown, at the request of the Space Force. It's unclear when the payloads are scheduled to be deployed.
The payloads include Continuous Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM 2 (CBAS-2) satellite, which is headed to geostationary orbit, about 22,200 miles above Earth. Space Force officials said in an emailed statement on Friday that this will "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."
Also among the payloads, was the Long Duration Propulsive ESPA (LDPE)-3A, a payload adapter that can hold up to six small satellites. Five of those slots were filled on USSF-67, the Space Force statement revealed. LDPE-3A carried two satellites, called Catcher and Wide Area Search Satellite (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. WASSAT 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 other three satellites 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.
SpaceX's powerful Falcon Heavy rocket now has five flights under its belt. And USSF-67 is the first of its planned five missions for the Space Force this year. Meanwhile, the rocket company is gearing up for the first orbital test flight this quarter, 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.
WATCH Falcon Heavy rocket liftoff to orbit on the USSF-67 mission