Elon Musk sent his Tesla Roadster car into space in a demonstration test flight of his Falcon ‘Heavy’ rocket in February, completed with a space-suited mannequin and the radio playing David Bowie’s Space Oddity track on its radio.

It now appears that that the US Air Force will be next in line for a flight in a ‘Heavy’ around October. But Arabsat looks likely to be the first commercial client for a launch around the end of the year. Arabsat says that it will use a Falcon ‘Heavy’ to launch its Arabsat 6A satellite, which is being built by Lockheed Martin and will operate from 30.5 degrees East. The craft is currently being tested.

Other satellite operators with SpaceX ‘Heavy’ booking options – but no launch dates confirmed as yet – include Intelsat, Inmarsat and ViaSat.

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Categories: Articles, DTH/Satellite