The Falcon Heavy is scheduled to lift off at 9:41 a.m. Tuesday. EDT (1341 GMT) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on a mission for the U.S. Space Force called USSF-44. You can watch it live here on Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly through the company. There will be plenty to take in as the Falcon Heavy roars off the pad and as the three first stage boosters return to Earth shortly after liftoff. This action will have audio as well as visual elements. “Please be advised, tomorrow morning’s launch will be followed by a double sonic boom. This will occur shortly after launch as the boosters land on Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station,” Space Launch Delta 45, the O official account of Space Force Base Patrick and the Cape Canaveral Space Station, said via Twitter (opens in new tab) on Monday (October 31). All three Falcon Heavy first-stage boosters (which are modified versions of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket) are capable of vertical landings shortly after liftoff, with the core center stage usually trying its luck on an unmanned ship SpaceX at sea. But the nuclear booster on Tuesday’s launch will be thrust into the sea instead of attempting a landing because USSF-44 is such a fuel-demanding mission. It sends a handful of payloads into geostationary orbit, about 22,000 miles (35,400 kilometers) above the planet, and the long journey will use up most of its booster core propulsion. The main payload lifting off on Tuesday, a spacecraft called USSF-44, is classified, so very little is known about it. Also flying on the mission is a small technology demonstration satellite called Tetra-1, which was built for the Space Force by Boeing subsidiary Millenium Space Systems. According to EverydayAstronaut.com (opens in new tab). USSF-44 will be just the fourth launch for the Falcon Heavy overall and its first since June 2019. The long drought between launches is mainly due to delays with the delivery of payloads on the rocket’s manifest. USSF-44, for example, was originally supposed to fly in late 2020, but the primary satellite wasn’t ready. The Falcon Heavy is the most powerful rocket flying today. But two even smarter launchers are slated to debut soon. NASA is preparing to launch Artemis 1, the first mission of the Space Launch System megarocket, on November 14. And SpaceX is preparing for the first orbital test flight of Starship, the giant vehicle it is developing to carry cargo and people to the moon and Mars. Mike Wall is the author of “Out there (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018, illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for extraterrestrial life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in a new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or enabled Facebook (opens in a new tab).
