SpaceX’s fourth Falcon Heavy launch continues to approach, most recently celebrating what appears to be the arrival of one of three new Falcon Heavy boosters for static fire testing in Texas.
There is a chance that the booster in question is just a normal first stage of Falcon 9, but from photos by local resident Reagan, the unusual presence of a white interstage (the carbon fiber composite section containing grid fins and implantation hardware second stage) implies the opposite.
After several months of inactivity since the first of three new Falcon Heavy side boosters – ‘disguised’ with a rejected interstate Falcon 9 – arrived at SpaceX’s test facility in McGregor, Texas, the latest booster is probably the second of two new ones Falcon Heavy side boosters needed for a US military launch later this year.
After leaving the SpaceX factory in Hawthorne, California, sometime in late August 2020, the NASASpaceflight hardware later confirmed to be the first of three new Falcon Heavy boosters that went vertically in McGregor, Texas, a static fire supporter. about a month later. Strangely, unlike the other four Falcon Heavy side boosters that SpaceX has tested in recent years, this particular core arrived in Texas with an interstate placeholder instead of a revealing nose.
Why it is not clear, since two previous side amplifiers were driven statically with nosecones installed. Regardless, given that the newest interstate white booster does not appear to have any custom central core hardware installed, it is most likely the second of two Falcon Heavy Flight 4 side boosters.
If the rocket passes these acceptance tests, it will leave two other stages – a custom central core and an upper orbital stage – to ship and test before SpaceX can say it has all the hardware available for the fourth launch of the triple reinforcement rocket. . Postponed from the fourth quarter of 2020 to February 2021 in September 2020, the first launch of the new Falcon Heavy is known as AFSPC-44 or USSF-44 and will deliver an unspecified US military satellite and one or more rideshare payloads directly for geostationary orbit (GEO) – a first for SpaceX.
Unless this secondary reinforcement is within days of a live static fire test and a new Falcon Heavy core and upper stage is already in McGregor or days before Hawthorne leaves, a February 2021 launch target is almost impossible.
Not long after the February 28 provisional launch date was announced, a USAF official offered an updated target, stating that the USSF-44 should be launched in the “late spring” – implying (at least in the US) May or June 2021. It is not clear what is to blame for the six or more months of delays that the mission suffered last year, but the continuation of reinforcement tests is a good sign that things are more or less on track.