SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket Launched on Classified Military Mission

The Pentagon has said the latest mission, known as USSF-44, had been delayed by issues with the payload. It is the second national-security launch by the Falcon Heavy, part of SpaceX’s growing business with the Pentagon.

The two boosters separated from the core engine module and returned to land within seconds of each other under their own power at the Florida launch complex, according to a SpaceX webcast of Tuesday’s event. The company stopped the webcast of the launch after about eight minutes to limit any views of the classified payload, which SpaceX said was at the request of its government customer.

SpaceX in 2014 secured the right to bid for Pentagon contracts following a court battle. The company had challenged an exclusive, long-term deal between the Pentagon and United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between

Lockheed Martin Corp.

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and

Boeing Co.

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, to launch military and intelligence satellites.

The largest classified satellites are the size of a school bus and can cost more than $1 billion, Pentagon leaders have said.

The only other rocket capable of carrying such large loads for the Pentagon is the Delta IV Heavy booster operated by ULA. The Delta IV Heavy is due to be retired in two years when the ULA’s supply of Russian-made engines is exhausted, and the replacement Vulcan rocket being developed by the partners is behind schedule and has yet to fly. It uses new engines made by

Jeff Bezos’s

Blue Origin LLC.

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy comprises three Falcon 9 rockets strapped together, with a total of 28 engines powering the rocket. Tuesday’s launch aimed to ferry the Pentagon payload to a planned orbit about 22,000 miles above the Earth’s surface.

The Falcon Heavy vehicle was conceived to carry large satellites for either businesses or the government, and transport U.S. astronauts, though the crewed role has been superseded by the company’s smaller Falcon 9 rocket, as well as its new Starship vehicle and Super Heavy booster.

A National Aeronautics and Space Administration official said this week that the first effort to send Starship into orbit could happen as early as December, in line with SpaceX comments about its plans.

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, which is larger than the Falcon Heavy, is due to be rolled out to a launchpad this week ahead of the agency’s latest effort to send it on its first mission on Nov. 14. Two earlier attempts were scrubbed because of technical problems.

Write to Doug Cameron at [email protected]