SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Hopes to Lift ViaSat-3F 3 Into Orbit

SpaceX is gearing up for a big launch from Kennedy Space Center, where the powerful Falcon Heavy rocket will carry the newest ViaSat-3F 3 satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. The launch window opens at 10:13 a. m. on Wednesday, April 29, and the company has until 11:38 a. m. to push it off the pad if everything looks good. The Falcon Heavy is basically three Falcon 9 boosters joined together. The two outer boosters are designed to come back down, a feat that was first proven in earlier missions. Once the main stage is done, these side boosters will return to Cape Canaveral’s landing zones 2 and 40, producing the familiar sonic boom that signals a successful touchdown.The ViaSat‑3F 3 satellite is part of a trio of Ka‑band communications satellites that will orbit about 22, 236 miles above Earth’s equator. Its mission is to boost broadband capacity for the Asia‑Pacific region, adding more than one terabit per second of data throughput. The first two satellites in the series launched on previous flights, and this one is expected to be the most powerful of the fleet. A weather check has cleared the launch window, giving SpaceX a clean slate after a prior scrub caused by bad conditions. The rocket is already fueled, and final systems checks are underway. If everything stays on schedule, the countdown will begin shortly before 10:13 a. m. , and the world will watch as the rocket lifts off, carries its payload, and lands the side boosters back on Earth.