GOES provide advanced imagery and atmospheric measurements of Earth’s Western Hemisphere, real-time mapping of lightning activity, and monitoring of solar activity and space weather. GOES satellites orbit 22,236 miles above Earth’s equator, at speeds equal to the Earth's rotation. This allows them to maintain their positions over specific geographic regions so they can provide continuous coverage of that area over time.

GOES-U is the fourth and final spacecraft in the GOES-R Series of geostationary weather satellites operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The GOES-R Series is a joint effort between NASA and NOAA and includes GOES-R, GOES-S, GOES-T, and GOES-U.

Courtesy of NASA

Falcon Heavy is designed and manufactured by SpaceX in Hawthorne, California. It is derived from the Falcon 9 vehicle and consists of a strengthened Falcon 9 first stage as a central core with two additional first stages as strap-on boosters.

Stats

Total launches: 11

Total landings: 19

Total reflights: 15

Specs

Height: 70m / 229.6ft

Width: 12.2m / 39.9ft

Mass: 1,420,788kg / 3,125,735lb

Payload to LEO: 63,800 kg / 140,660 lb

Payload to GEO: 26,700 kg / 58,860 lb

Payload to Mars: 16,800 kg / 37,040 lb

Lineage

SpaceX conducted Falcon Heavy's first launch on February 6th, 2018, at 3:45 PM EST. The rocket carried a Tesla Roadster belonging to SpaceX founder Elon Musk, with a dummy dubbed "Starman" in the driver's seat.

The second Falcon Heavy launch occurred on April 11th, 2019. This launch successfully launched the Arabsat-6A satellite and all three booster rockets successfully returned to Earth except but the center core subsequently fell over and was lost during transport due to heavy seas.

The third Falcon Heavy launch successfully occurred on June 25th, 2019. This mission successfully launched multiple payloads including USAF STP-2, a space memorial for Celestis, and Lightsail-2. The mission also supported the U.S. Air Force National Security Space Launch certification process for the Falcon Heavy. The side boosters were successfully recovered but the center core failed to land and was destroyed on impact with the Atlantic Ocean.

The fourth Falcon Heavy mission, USSF-44 for the U.S. Space Force, successfully launched on November 1st, 2022 from Kennedy Space Center.

The fifth Falcon Heavy mission launched USSF-67 on January 15th, 2023.

The soxth Falcon Heavy mission launched ViaSat-3 Americas on April 30th, 2023.

The seventh Falcon Heavy mission launched EchoStar 24 (Jupiter 3) on July 28th, 2023.

The eighth Falcon Heavy mission launched Psyche on October 13th, 2023.

Photo by SpaceX/Ben Cooper

Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) is a historic launch site located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Originally constructed in the late 1960s, LC-39A was designed to support the Apollo program, including the groundbreaking Apollo 11 mission that first landed humans on the Moon in 1969. The pad also played a crucial role in launching Skylab missions and was instrumental during the Space Shuttle era, including the launch of the first Space Shuttle, Columbia, on STS-1 in 1981.

In 2014, SpaceX leased LC-39A from NASA and undertook extensive refurbishments to adapt the pad for its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. These upgrades involved significant modifications to the pad's infrastructure to meet the requirements of SpaceX’s rockets. Since then, LC-39A has become a vital launch site for SpaceX, supporting a range of missions including crewed flights under NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

Under SpaceX's management, LC-39A has been the site of several landmark events. It hosted the first Falcon 9 launch from the pad on March 30, 2017, and was the launch site for the historic Falcon Heavy debut on February 6, 2018, which was the most powerful rocket in operation at that time. Additionally, LC-39A was the launch site for the first crewed flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft on May 30, 2020, marking the first crewed spaceflight from U.S. soil since the end of the Shuttle program.

Today, LC-39A remains a critical asset for SpaceX, supporting both crewed and uncrewed missions. It continues to serve as a launch site for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets and is expected to play a central role in future missions, including those aimed at lunar exploration and beyond. The pad's rich history and ongoing significance highlight its importance in the broader context of space exploration.

Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) is an 86-meter-wide circular landing pad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and is one of two SpaceX booster landing pads at the Florida spaceport.

Built on former Launch Complex 13, LZ-1 was the site of SpaceX's first successful landing and recovery of a Falcon 9 on the ORBCOMM-2 mission in December 2015. Since then, it has hosted 16 landings.

The landing pad, as well as its twin, LZ-2 located a few dozen meters away, can support both single landings of a Falcon 9 or simultaneous landings of the two Falcon Heavy side boosters.

Photo by Jenny Hautmann for Supercluster

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High-quality prints selected from the Supercluster team’s spaceflight photography are now available in our shop.

Our prints are produced on 10 mil (0.25 mm) thick, slightly glossy, fingerprint-resistant photo paper sourced from Japan.

Collect this photo of a double booster landing: Jenny Hautmann's capture of two Falcon Heavy side boosters returning to Earth after launch.

SpaceX will discard the center core of the Falcon Heavy rocket by dropping it into the Atlantic Ocean.

The primary reason SpaceX does not attempt to recover the center core is to enable the Falcon Heavy to carry a greater amount of mass into geostationary orbit. This is particularly important for heavy geostationary satellites, which require the center core to be expended.

To minimize weight, the center core will have its landing legs and grid fins removed.