This manifest includes a ViaSat-3 commercial communications satellite and the Psyche asteroid mission for NASA. This fleet will be able to support the following Falcon Heavy missions which are not for the Department of Defense. If all booster recovery efforts on these missions are successful, this will grow SpaceX’s fleet of Falcon Heavy stages to six side boosters and a single center core. That mission is expected to enable the recovery of all three stages: both side boosters and the center core. The following Falcon Heavy mission, another classified payload named USSF-52, will also require three new stages. This requirement suggests the next boosters through McGregor, B1065 and B1066, will also be Falcon Heavy stages for the USSF-44 mission. These boosters will not be reused on the USSF-44 mission, however, as the United States Department of Defense is the only SpaceX customer which still requires new boosters for their missions.įalcon Heavy at LC-39A ahead of the STP-2 mission, showing the reused B1052 and B1053 side boosters – via Brady Kenniston for NSF However, recovery teams were unable to secure the booster in rough seas, and the core tipped and was destroyed.Īs a result, the only active Falcon Heavy stages in the SpaceX fleet are B1052 and B1053, the side boosters which launched both the Arabsat-6A and STP-2 missions. Only one of these three center core landing attempts have resulted in a successful touchdown, with core B1055 landing on Of Course I Still Love You after the Arabsat-6A mission. On those same flights, the center core has attempted to land on a drone ship downrange. On Falcon Heavy’s three flights to date, the side boosters have performed Return to Launch Site (RTLS) landings at Landing Zones 1 and 2 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, just a few miles south of the rocket’s launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center. Due to the mission’s performance requirements, the side boosters are expected to land on SpaceX’s two Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ships, Of Course I Still Love You and Just Read the Instructions, stationed downrange in the Atlantic Ocean. As a result, the center core will be intentionally expended, and SpaceX will only attempt to recover the side boosters.

The classified payload for the United States military will be delivered directly to Geostationary Orbit. The mission, USSF-44, is scheduled to launch no earlier than February 28, 2021. This hardware is only expected on the side boosters, as the next Falcon Heavy flight will expend the center core due to the mission’s performance requirements. Photo of B1064 in McGregor via Gary Blair for NSF/L2, from his plane at 4,000 feet AGLĪnother feature which confirms that the stage is a Falcon Heavy side booster is the visible attachment points for landing legs and grid fins, the hardware necessary to land the booster propulsively after launch. Presumably, after the testing requiring an old interstage is completed, B1064 will receive its nosecone. The new booster spotted in McGregor has no Falcon 9 logo or American flag, and has the SpaceX logo on the side, the paint scheme of a Falcon Heavy side booster. Falcon 9 cores have the Falcon 9 logo and an American flag just below the interstage, and SpaceX lettering. Side boosters have had the SpaceX lettering down the side of the booster. Since the debut of the Block 5 configuration for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, center cores have had the Falcon Heavy logo and an American flag painted on the white interstage, with no SpaceX logo down the side of the core. The role of this booster could not be identified the usual way, but other features spotted on the booster indicate that it is a Falcon Heavy side booster. This is not the first time that a booster has arrived at McGregor in a strange configuration, and likely points to some special testing that will be conducted using this booster before it is configured for its actual mission. The Falcon 9 logo is visible in photos, and the discoloration from its previous flight is apparent compared to the new, clean booster. However, the newest booster, presumed to be B1064, arrived with a previously flown interstage from a non-Block 5 Falcon 9 booster. Normally, the type of Falcon core is obvious based on either a nosecone for a Falcon Heavy side booster, a white interstage for a Falcon Heavy center core, or a black interstage for a Falcon 9 stage.

(Lead Photo via Gary Blair for NSF/L2, from his plane at 4,000 feet AGL)

Based on the logos and hardware on the exterior of the booster, the stage has been identified as a Falcon Heavy side booster, slated to support the next flight of SpaceX’s heavy lift rocket early next year. A new Falcon booster has been installed on the test stand at SpaceX’s Rocket Development and Test Facility in McGregor, Texas.

Spacex falcon 9 logo