A SpaceX Falcon 9 will become the first commercial rocket to attempt to land after an operational launch for the U.S. Army, potentially paving the way for an even more significant milestone somewhere along the way.
With the new B1060 boost and a new top-stage fairing and payload, Falcon 9 is slated to launch the US Army’s third updated GPS III satellite (PS III SV01) no earlier than (NET) 3:55 pm EDT (19:55 UTC) on June 30. Although it will be the second time that a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket takes off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) Launch Complex 40 (LC-40) with a GPS III satellite in tow, the mission will mark a first critical place for SpaceX and the United States Army. For the first GPS III mission, the US Air Force inexplicably required SpaceX to spend the new Falcon 9 booster assigned to the December 2018 launch.
The U.S. Army never offered a technical explanation as to why Falcon 9 failed to land after launching a ~ 3900 kg (~ 8600 lb) GPS III SV01 into medium orbit, but could, for example, land after launch a dozen metric tons and two from NASA astronauts Anyway, the US Air Force Missile and Space Systems Command (SMC) has decided that SpaceX can now try to land the first stage of Falcon 9 during the company’s second GPS III release. One step further, on the eve of the mission, SMC has revealed that it may even open up to the idea of reusing SpaceX amps in future military launches.
Falcon 9 B1060 has a 15-minute window to launch the GPS III SV03 spacecraft on Tuesday, June 30. Meanwhile, the drone Just Read The Instructions (JRTI), which was heading out to sea to prepare for the B1060’s attempted landing, recently passed a few miles from the drone Of course I still love you (OCISLY), returning to Port Canaveral after SpaceX decided to delay its ninth Starlink v1.0 release from June 23. 25 and 26 the first or second week of July.
JRTI arrived at its post ~ 630 km (~ 390 miles) east of the Florida coast on June 29, about 36 hours before takeoff.
The JRTI unmanned vessel was recently commissioned after extensive upgrades and a several thousand mile transfer from the Port of Los Angeles, California to Port Canaveral, Florida, ultimately supporting its first landing and booster recovery in the east coast just three weeks ago. If successful, B1060 will become the first orbital-class booster to land after an operational U.S. military launch, excluding a series of space shuttle missions in the 1980s.
According to reports by Sandra Erwin from Space News, SpaceX is unlikely to reserve Falcon 9’s B1060 booster, assuming a successful landing, for reuse in a future US military launch, given that SMC appears to have even stricter requirements. that NASA’s Commercial Crew (CCP) and Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) programs, it is safe to assume that, like NASA, the US Army will only initially allow reuse of the booster if that booster has only flown missions for the agency Given that the next known military release of Falcon 9 in the US (GPS III SV04) is NET “in late 2020” and that “there are currently no plans to use a previous booster on any GPS release in the future “, SpaceX is unlikely to waste a perfect space good booster when storing for 6-18+ months
Regardless, as usual, SpaceX will perform an uninterrupted webcast of the launch. Tune in about 15 minutes before watching SpaceX’s third launch of the month and 11 of the year.
Check out the Teslarati newsletters for quick updates, on-the-ground insights and unique insights into SpaceX’s rocket launch and recovery processes.