SpaceX achieved a great success by launching STP-2 mission, to deploy dizens of satellite using Falcon Heavy — the reusable rocket— into orbit early Tuesday morning.
After a three hour delay, SpaceX launched the STP-2 (space test programme 2), the heavy mega rocket at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida at 2 am in the morning.
Before the launch, SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, called this mission as the “most difficult launch ever.” The Falcon Heavy carrying 24 satellites, which needed to be placed in three different orbits, requires multiple upper-stage engine firings and is going to take several hours to release them all, according to The Washington Post.
The STP-2 launch is the military’s first ride on a reusable rocket to prove the company’s capability to carry out national security missions in the future.
Both side boosters successfully landed back at Cape Canaveral air force station several minutes after lift-off, as they did in the test launched in April.
During the mission, SpaceX successfully caught half of the fairing, or nose cone, of its Falcon Heavy rocket, which is considered as a new milestone as the company seeks to consistently reuse an expensive part of its rocket.
The first test flight for the Falcon Heavy was in February 2018. The new rocket will help reduce the huge cost of launching rockets by providing data to certify the Falcon Heavy and reused boosters for future national security launches.
SpaceX launches reusable Falcon Heavy rocket deploying 24 satellites
