SpaceX is on monitor to launch the Falcon Heavy for the primary time in three years after it efficiently put the heavy-lift launch automobile by a static fireplace take a look at. The personal area company has announced the take a look at’s profitable completion on Twitter, together with a photograph of the rocket because it breathes out fireplace and smoke whereas perched at NASA Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad 39A. During a static fireplace take a look at, a rocket’s engines are ignited to examine their efficiency whereas remaining on the bottom. 

The firm carried out this specific take a look at in preparation for USSF-44, the labeled mission SpaceX is flying for the US Space Force. USSF-44 can have two payloads, each satellites, that might be deployed into geostationary orbit. It was initially scheduled for liftoff on October thirty first, however SpaceX is at the moment concentrating on a November 1st launch. The firm hasn’t revealed a launch time throughout the day but, however in response to Space and Next Spaceflight, it would occur round 9:40AM ET.

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket first took flight in 2018, carrying a cherry pink Tesla Roadster owned by firm chief Elon Musk with a dummy dubbed “Starman” within the driver’s seat. The final time it flew was in June 2019, and SpaceX described it on the time as one of many “most challenging” launches in its historical past — touchdown the middle core proved too difficult that it missed the drone ship ready for it by a couple of toes. Since then, it has been licensed to hold the Space Force’s secret spy satellites to orbit, and the primary of these missions may happen in a couple of days’ time.