Falcon ‘Heavy’ to fly again in January
November 2, 2018
By Chris Forrester
Elon Musk’s Falcon ‘Heavy’ rocket (in essence a Falcon 9 with two additional strap-on boosters) first flew in February 2018 with a maiden flight from Cape Canaveral. That rocket carried a Tesla ‘Roadster’ into space. The reusable Falcon Heavy is currently the world’s most powerful rocket in terms of payload capacity.
Unconfirmed reports say that the rocket’s next flight, and its first commercial effort, will happen around mid-January when it is expected to carry two Middle East satellites into orbit, including Arabsat 6A.
The overall Arabsat mission is officially operated by the Saudi Arabia-based King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology and comprises 3 separate components. First, is Arabsat 6A. The second is the joint HellasSat-4 and SaudiGeoSat-1. The contract was signed back in January 2015.
The satellites were built by Lockheed Martin.
HellasSat is wholly-owned by Arabsat.
Arabsat 6A will operate from 30.5 degrees East, while HellasSat/SaudiGeoSat will work from 39 degrees East.