SpaceX's Falcon Heavy Rocket Flies Again and Launches the ViaSat-3 F3 Satellite into Orbit
With the Falcon 9 continuing to maintain an impressive launch cadence for a medium launch vehicle, SpaceX has also brought its heavy lifter, the Falcon Heavy, back to flight after its last launch, which took place in October 2024 for the NASA Europa Clipper mission. This vehicle will be used for other launches in the coming months as Elon Musk's company seeks to realize the new fully reusable space rocket, Starship.
The Return of Falcon Heavy.
27 Merlin Engines. 5.13 Million lbs of thrust. I've been dreaming of this shot since the start, and finally it has materialized. I could not be more proud.
This Falcon Heavy mission was related to the ViaSat-3 F3 satellite (Asia-Pacific), which has a significant mass of about 6 tons and is designed for geostationary orbit. For this reason, conventional rockets are not powerful enough, and it was necessary to use the most powerful commercial vehicle currently available.
The launch occurred at 16:13 yesterday, April 29, after a delay due to bad weather. The mission successfully took place using Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which has been refurbished to support the heavy launcher, also removing the crew access arm for the Crew Dragon.
Unlike other missions of this model, the central booster (code B1098) was not recovered (as it was on its first flight), while the two side boosters successfully returned to their Landing Zones (LZ-2 and LZ-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. One of the side boosters (code B1075) had been used for the SDA-0A, SARah-2, Transporter-11, and 18 Starlink missions, while the other (code B1072) was utilized for the GOES-U mission.
During the flight, just before stage separation, it was possible to notice the shutdown of one Merlin-1D engine for each of the two side boosters. This is a planned event related to reducing thrust before the second stage ignites its engine to avoid excessive thrust provided by the three first stages, which at that point have reduced mass while the engines are still at full power.
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy has flown a total of 12 times, including the initial test flight. The first launch occurred in February 2018, sending Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster into orbit with the mannequin Starman on board. Then, in April 2019, it was the turn of the Arabsat-6A satellite, while in June of the same year, it was the DoD's STP-2 mission, which also included the experimental LightSail 2 satellite. Several months passed before seeing a new launch of this vehicle with the AFSPC-44 mission (in early November 2022) for the Space Force and then in January of the following year, the USSF-67 mission. In 2023 (in May), it was time for the large ViaSat-3 Americas satellite, while in July 2023, the EchoStar Jupiter-3 satellite was launched into orbit.
NASA has also utilized the Falcon Heavy for several of its missions. The first launch was for the Psyche mission (October 2023). The heavy lifter was then used for the USSF-52 mission (December 2023), for the launch of the secret military spaceplane Boeing X-37B. After a few months, it was the turn of GOES-U (June 2024), while in October of the same year, it was the other NASA space probe, Europa Clipper (October 2024).
The SpaceX Falcon Heavy will also launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (RST) in the coming months. Initially, the launch was scheduled for September 2026, but Jared Isaacman (NASA administrator) recently stated that he is seeking an agreement with SpaceX to launch the new scientific instrument as early as August 2026. It's noteworthy that the US launched three heavy-lift vehicles this month: NASA SLS (Artemis II), Blue Origin New Glenn (BlueBird 7), and SpaceX Falcon Heavy (ViaSat-3 F3).