Announcer: Six, five, four,
three, two, one, zero.
In position.
Narrator: Remember the Falcon Heavy?
SpaceX's megarocket that
fired a Tesla up into space
in 2018 and its first commercial
satellite in early 2019.
Well, it's back.
This time not with one
satellite but 24 of them,
in what had been dubbed by
SpaceX's CEO, Elon Musk,
as its most difficult mission ever.
The mission is called
Space Test Program-2.
It's the first time Falcon
Heavy has launched a payload
for the US Air Force, but
it may not be the last.
The rocket blasted off from
the Kennedy Space Center.
And although this is the
rocket's third launch,
it's the first with reused rockets.
Specifically the two side
boosters, which were used
on the previous Falcon
launch in early 2019.
Both side boosters made a
simultaneous successful landing
back at Kennedy Space Center
shortly after takeoff.
Announcer: See it coming
towards our two landing pads.
See those landing legs deploy.
Narrator: And the plan
was that the central core
would land on a drone ship
770 miles off the coast
of Florida, but it
slightly missed its mark
and landed in the Atlantic Ocean instead.
Announcer: Pretty good view!
Narrator: But it's not this complex series
of rocket-landing attempts
that is why Musk called this
the most difficult mission yet.
It was the complexity of the payload
and how SpaceX had to deploy it,
because the mission involved not only
multiple satellites but multiple orbits.
Specifically, three separate orbits,
which required four
upper-stage engine burns
that lasted over six hours.
In total, the collection of
satellites brought the cost
of this mission to an
estimated $750 million.
Which isn't surprising when
you see what this rideshare had
on board, including a Deep
Space digital atomic clock
made by NASA for better
space-navigation tracking,
an experimental propellant
developed by the US Air Force
that's safer for humans to handle,
and an innovative spacecraft
called a LightSail
designed by The Planetary Society
that's powered by solar rays alone.
But it wasn't just scientific
instruments SpaceX launched.
Attached to the same satellite
carrying NASA's atomic clock
were the cremated remains of 152 people,
including late NASA astronaut Bill Pogue.
These were sent up by Celestis
Memorial Spaceflights,
a company that will launch remains
to space starting at nearly $5,000.
In all, the successful mission
was a huge win for SpaceX
because this puts it a step
ahead of its competitors
for a coveted government contract
to launch some of the government's
multimillion- to
multibillion-dollar equipment.
SpaceX will have to beat
other competing companies
like Blue Origin and
United Launch Alliance.
But if it wins the contract,
it would be a lucrative
addition to the Falcon Heavy's
already impressive launch manifest.
And could mean that
we'll see more launches
and landings like this one.
