Six Australian weather satellites are slated to take a ride into orbit on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in what founder Elon Musk describes as the company's "most difficult launch ever".

The six Aussie birds won't be alone:  Dubbed the Space Test Program-2 flight, the world's most-powerful rocket will attempt to deliver 24 different payloads into three different orbits.  This will require multiple re-ignitions of the Merlin 1D engine which powers the rocket's second stage.  These maneuvers will require precise performance by the upper stage over the course of six hours.

The Bureau of Meteorology's contribution are collectively called the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate (COSMIC-2).  

"Personally, being a space nerd it's a very exciting thing to be a part of and for the Bureau of Meteorology to be a part of," chief data officer Dr Anthony Rea said.  "The satellites orbit around the equator so we expect some benefits in terms of tropical cyclone forecasting and tropical weather prediction.

Each of the six will contain a precision GPS receiver to determine atmospheric density, temperature, pressure and moisture.  Control will come from the BOM's technical experts at Middle Point in the Northern Territory, monitoring the satellite's deployment and ensuring they worked properly.

"So this ground station is doing two things.  It's downloading data from the satellites which will be used in our weather prediction models so we get a direct benefit," Dr. Rea said.  "But this ground station is also providing what we call command and control information from the satellite, so it's actually sending signals back up to the satellites to tell them how to adjust their orbits or how to do their observation programs."