SpaceX Launches Falcon Heavy with ViaSat Satellite from Kennedy Space Center

The two side boosters separated two minutes and 25 seconds after liftoff and executed on-target touchdowns on separate pads at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The central booster separated a minute-and-a-half later and was jettisoned into the Atlantic Ocean.

The upper stage required three engine firings to place the ViaSat-3 satellite in an elliptical orbit. The launch was originally set for Monday but was scrubbed due to poor weather. The previous Falcon Heavy mission occurred in October 2024 and carried NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft to Jupiter.

The Falcon Heavy set the ViaSat satellite on a trajectory toward a geosynchronous transfer orbit. The first Falcon Heavy launch occurred in 2018.

ViaSat is stationing larger, more powerful satellites in geosynchronous orbit to provide global space-based internet access on hemispheric scales.

The Falcon Heavy configuration has nailed all previous launches, producing more thrust than any other vehicle currently in commercial operation at liftoff, followed by pinpoint, near-simultaneous landings of the dual side boosters.

The maiden launch in 2018 sent a charismatic Starman dummy in Elon Musk’s cherry red Tesla on an infinite mission to orbit the sun somewhere between Earth and Mars. Footage of Musk rushing from the launch control room to go outside and watch Falcon Heavy’s first-ever ascent through the atmosphere has become the stuff of space legend and meme lore.

Meanwhile, Starship has continued its elongated campaign of explosive test flights that have delayed his initial ambitions of reaching the moon and Mars by the end of the decade. SpaceX is actively building a constellation of Starlink satellites in low-Earth orbit that provide internet access by routing data from users to satellites passing overhead, which in turn relay the signals to and from ground stations.

So far, the company has launched nearly 12,000 Starlinks in nearly 400 launches over the past seven years. Blue Origin also is building a planned constellation of some 3,200 broadband satellites in low-Earth orbit, with 270 launched to date. Amazon's LEO satellites eventually will compete head to head with SpaceX's Starlinks.

The company intends for Starship to handle heavy lift missions in the future, and it’s designing many payloads for the next-generation vehicle, leaving Heavy less in demand. For rocket enthusiasts, it remains a reminder of a critical milestone in aerospace engineering and likely a precursor of more impressive accomplishments to come.