Falcon Heavy rocket gears up for its 5th launch for US Space Force; SpaceX shares pics

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket is gearing up for its next launch targeted no earlier than January 12. Currently, at the hangar at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, the Falcon Heavy is being prepared for the USSF-67 which is a satellite launch mission for the US Space Force. 

Ahead of the highly-anticipated launch, SpaceX shared a couple of pictures of the Falcon Heavy from the hangar at Launch Complex 39A. 

The Falcon Heavy, which is the world's most powerful commercial launch vehicle, uses three boosters, one core and two attached to the sides. Each of these boosters uses nine Merlin engines that together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft. SpaceX says that the 70-metre-tall rocket is capable of lifting nearly 64 metric tons (1,41,000 lbs) to orbit. "It’s amazing to see them work in unison – so much has to go right for that to happen!," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted. 

The most recent Falcon Heavy launch was for the USSF-44 mission which launched from the Kennedy Space Center on November 1 after over three years. Citing the US Space Systems Command (SSC), Teslarati reported that the next launch, similar to the USSF-44 mission, will launch with the Aerojet Rocketdyne Long Duration Propulsive EELV (LPDE) as the main payload. This spacecraft will carry several experiments, instruments, and smaller satellites to advance "warfighting capabilities in the areas of on-orbit threat assessment, space hazard detection, and space domain awareness.”

While the Falcon Heavy has had only four launches since its debut mission on February 7, 2018, as many as five launches are planned for 2023. One of these launches would see the rocket liftoff with NASA's Psyche spacecraft which has been designed to study a metal-rich asteroid named 'Psyche'.