A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the NASA psyche spacecraft has launched from the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida on October 13, 2023.
Credit: Chandan Khanna / AFP via Getty Images
The launch orders announced on Friday include the second batch of NSSL 3 phase 3 missions that the space force has allocated to SpaceX and ULA.
It is important to remember that these prices are not what ULA or SpaceX would charge a commercial satellite customer. The American government pays a bonus for access to space. The spatial force, the National Recognition Office and NASA do not make their launch as a commercial customer would. Instead, government agencies have more information on their launch entrepreneurs, including inspections, flight data exams, risk assessments and security controls. Government missions also generally have a priority on the launching hours of ULA and SpaceX. All this is added to more money.
A heavy burden
According to Lieutenant Kristina Stewart, four of the five launches awarded to Spacex will use the company’s largest Falcon Heavy Rocket rocket, Lieutenant-Colonel Kristina Stewart. One will fly on the Falcon 9 of Workhorse of SpaceX. It is the first time that a majority of the annual launch orders of the spatial force have required the lifting capacity of a Heavy Falcon, with three cores of Booster Falcon 9 combining to lift greater useful loads in space.
All versions of the ULA Vulcan rocket use a single nucleus booster, with a variable number of combustion combustion rocket engines to provide an additional launching ramp.
Here is a ventilation of the seven new missions assigned to SpaceX and ULA:
• USSF-149: Téléée Useful classified on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in Florida
• USSF-63: Téléée Useful classified on a Spacex Falcon Heavy from Florida
• USSF-155: Classified PACKEX FALCON FLORIDE classified user load
• USSF-205: WGS-12 communication satellite on a Florida Falcony Spacex Falcony
• NROL-86: Téléée Useful classified on a Spacex Falcon Heavy from Florida
• USSF-88: GPS IIIF-4 navigation satellite on a VC2S (two solid rocket boosters) in Florida
• NROL-88: Téléée Useful classified on a VC4 Ula Vulcan (four solid rockets) from Florida
