
The Air Force’s upcoming launch of 24 new research-and-development payloads will demonstrate the performance of Space X’s Falcon Heavy launch vehicle for the first time on a Defense Department mission. The department’s Space Test Program (STP)-2 mission is currently scheduled for launch no earlier than June 24 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Col. Robert Bongiovi, director of the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) Launch Enterprise Systems Directorate, called it “one of the…