INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
SpaceX beat out one other competitor to land a $130 million launch contract with the U.S
Air Force using its Falcon Heavy rocket
The award is an important validation of the Falcon Heavy,one of the most powerful rockets ever made.
Under the contract, the Hawthorne,
Calif.-based rocket company founded by Elon Musk will launch the Air Force Space Command-52 satellite to its intended orbit
The contract includes launch vehicle production and mission, as well as integration, launch operations and spaceflight worthiness
activities, according to a notice posted by the U.S
Department of Defense.
The work, which will be performed at SpaceX headquarters, the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and inMcGregor, Texas,
is expected to be completed by September 2020
The mission is planned to be launched fromKennedy Space Center.
Two proposals were received by the DOD in the competitive bidding
process.
&SpaceX is honored by the Air Force selection of Falcon Heavy to launch the competitively-awarded AFSPC-52 mission,& said SpaceX
President and COO Gwynne Shotwell
&On behalf of all of our employees, I want to thank the Air Force for certifying Falcon Heavy, awarding us this critically important
mission, and for their trust and confidence in our company
SpaceX is pleased to continue offering the American taxpayer the most cost-effective, reliable launch services for vital national security
space missions.&
SpaceX successfully launched the Falcon Heavy for the first time (with a Tesla Roadster strapped to the top, no less,
because… well, Elon.) in February 2018
The rocket has three cores, or first-stage boosters, that work in unison to get the rocket into a low Earth orbit
There are two side boosters and a center core
SpaceX has designed the rocket so that after stage separation all three boosters will land and be able to be reused
The company recovered two of the three boosters.
