FINALLY! SpaceX's SLEEPING MONSTER Falcon Heavy is Launching after Constant Delays...

The 42nd rocket launch of the year and the 300th landing are the impressive numbers that SpaceX has achieved with its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket as of April 23. This astonishing success not only shocked the whole space industry but also signaled a blossoming year for SpaceX toward its goal of 148 launches. However, in opposite to Falcon 9, the terrifying silence of another rocket in the Falcon family, the Falcon Heavy in 2024's first quarter made the public confused, especially its lovers. Is this monster really outdated? Oh no, it is just sleeping and in just a few months, it will wake up to serve one of NASA's critically important missions. If successful, that mission promises to be a good first step for the company to get a series of lucrative contracts in the future. Find out everything in today's episode of TechMap. Indeed, this giant is in a round ahead of the very meaningful mission to launch NOAA's GOES-U satellite, the most advanced weather observing and environmental monitoring system. GOES-U is the fourth and last of the GOES-R series of satellites operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA. More notably, it is the first NOAA satellite to launch on a Falcon Heavy, three previous satellites of GOES-R were launched by ULA's retired Atlas V. The success of this mission is expected to pave the way for a long-term relationship with NASA's Launch Services Program office. Thus, it contributes to enhancing the reputation of SpaceX's rockets in the amid that Falcon Heavy's competitors are upgrading themselves to keep up with the trend. The brand new rocket, ULA's Vulcan Centaur had its successful maiden flight in January, which represents the challenger to the launch business of Elon Musk's SpaceX, with the companies fiercely competing for lucrative national security rocket contracts. Another motivation comes from the huge contract value with NASA. As one of the firm contracts for the science missions, it's not hard to explain why NASA paid up to $152 million to purchase a Falcon Heavy launch to launch a large, new NOAA weather satellite. This price, including the launch service and other mission-related costs, is very attractive for any space launch firm. To put it into perspective, a Falcon Heavy launch of Psyche, a special mission to a unique, metal-rich asteroid, was just priced at $117 million. Meanwhile, Falcon Heavy's launch of Europa Clipper, NASA's most important solar system exploration mission of 2020s, was a little bit higher, at $178 million. The fact that the GOES-U contract's monetary value is in the middle makes sense. Government satellites often have specific requirements that necessitate special handling during integration and launch. For example, it is a higher level of cleanliness to prevent contamination and ensure the satellite's reliability. So, NASA often requires additional engineering insight and expertise from the launch provider. This may involve stricter cleanroom protocols, additional cleaning procedures, and more rigorous quality checks. Not to mention, the GOES-U weather satellite is going to be deployed into geostationary orbit, 35,786 km in altitude above Earth's equator, compared to 2,000 km of LEO. But, this altitude is nothing compared to the journey to Jupiter's icy moon Europa. According to the 2021 contract, the launch date would be in April 2024 and in reality no earlier than April 30, but due to the leak on the rocket center core booster, it is now pushed to no earlier than June 25. Due to the importance of the mission, the GOES-U team has spent years building the instruments and spacecraft, integrating all the satellite's components, and conducting rigorous testing to ensure it can withstand the harsh launch conditions and successfully take up residence 22,236 miles above Earth. Additionally, they also researched and selected prudently the vehicle to meet the requirements of this mission. In this case, SpaceX has many advantages over the other competitors to gain this opportunity. Back in 2021 when the contract had been already signed, ULA's expendable Atlas V rocket was about to be retired, and of course Vulcan was still under development. Blue Origin's New Glenn was still in the imagination, so it's safe to say that SpaceX's rocket was virtually dominant. Most notably, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket totally meets the futuristic satellite's configuration. In terms of specification, with the size of a small school bus weighing 5,000 kilograms at the launch mass, the satellite is just one-fifth of Falcon Heavy's payload capacity. Meanwhile, the capacity in Atlas V was between 5,000 and 9,000 kilograms. What's more, the rocket's fairing is likely capable of protecting the satellite on its ascent through Earth's atmosphere and into orbit. By observing and evaluating the NASA Psyche mission, which launched on October 13, 2023 on a Falcon Heavy, the team was assured that the fairing would protect the spacecraft from aerodynamic pressure and heat during launch. This plays a vital role not only for the integrity of the cargo, but also due to the roughly 2,268 kilograms of toxic propellant inside. Getting a satellite into geostationary orbit and operating for 15 years requires a lot of fuel and oxidizer, and the propellants and their vapors are toxic. Any error like a leak is not allowed to occur. Referring to the rocket's ability, Falcon Heavy is composed of three Falcon 9-9 engine cores, whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at aircraft, roughly six times Atlas V's maximum thrust. Its reliability is also highly estimated. Among nine launches in total so far, we have never seen any failure, meaning its success rate reached absolute. This rate for Atlas V rocket is 98 out of 99, meaning one failure. Last but not least, Falcon Heavy offers a competitive price on the market, under $100 million cost per launch for the reusable mode and $150 million for the expendable mode. Although NASA is willing to pay additional fees for their significant missions, the ultimate price is much cheaper than what they spent for ULAA's expendable rockets. Atlas V-541 rocket, which sent up three predecessors of the Gozu satellite to orbit, has an average price tag of $145 million, but it is powered by the old-school Russian engines RD-180. So its payload capacity to GTO is very humble, one-third of SpaceX's heavy rocket. When served for NASA's weather satellite missions, it's certain that the price could go much higher since ULAA's launch services were inherently notoriously expensive. This is partly due to ULAA's nearly decade-long monopoly on NASA's medium and large scientific missions, from the company's formation in 2006 until the launch of a NASA-sponsored oceanography satellite on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in 2016. This period without competition resulted in higher launch prices for NASA, leading to a higher percentage of each mission's budget toward buying a rocket instead of adding to a spacecraft's scientific capability. Congressional budget cuts to NASA in recent years have put pressure on the space agency to find cheaper alternatives, especially in the context that NASA launch prices for spaceflight have shown an upward trend over the years, primarily due to various factors such as inflation, increasing complexity of missions, and evolving safety standards. The appearance of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets helps planning managers feel more comfortable in balancing spending. Simultaneously, this drives ULAA to change its strategy, one of which is to build a new, methane-fueled rocket, Vulcan Centaur powered by Blue Origin's BA-4 engine. However, to compete with SpaceX, it takes ULAA a while. ULAA's Vulcan will need to fly successfully at least three times before becoming eligible to launch NASA's most critical science payloads. The Space Force and ULAA agreed on a plan to certify Vulcan for national security missions after two successful missions. The brand new rocket has already flown for the first time in January. A manager in NASA's Launch Services Program suggested that, On average, the third successful launch of a common launch vehicle configuration is delayed nearly three years from a contractor's prediction a year ahead of the rocket's first flight. The bottom line is that NASA is likely several years away from certifying Vulcan to launch missions in the same class as Psyche or Europa Clipper. And that just about wraps it up for today's episode. Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you next time.