Jane Edwards
SpaceX conducted a static fire test of the Falcon Heavy rocket’s center core booster at the company’s McGregor, Texas-based facility to prepare for a launch mission that will bring 23 satellites to orbit in June, Space.com reported Monday.
NASA announced in mid-April that two cube satellites, another small satellite and an experimental payload will fly aboard Falcon Heavy for the U.S. Air Force’s Space Test Program-2 mission, which is set to take off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 22.
"In addition, the U.S. Air Force plans to reuse side boosters from the Arabsat-6A Falcon Heavy launch, recovered after a return to launch site landing, making it the first reused Falcon Heavy ever flown," according to a description of the STP-2 mission posted on SpaceX website.
According to the report, the Arabsat-6A communications satellite took off April 11 aboard Falcon Heavy as part of the first operational mission of the rocket, which made its maiden test flight in February 2018.
