SpaceNews.com reported the mission as follows, “SpaceX launched the Americas-focused ViaSat-3 broadband satellite on a Falcon Heavy rocket April 30 following delays partly caused by severe weather that included lightning and tornado warnings.
The Falcon Heavy lifted off 8:26 p.m. Eastern from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida, toward geostationary orbit (GEO) in the rocket’s sixth flight since its debut in 2018.
Both side boosters separated from the core stage just over three minutes after lift-off. The boosters had previously supported nine earlier missions in total, however, SpaceX decided not to attempt to recover them this time to improve the rocket’s performance.
The primary 6,400-kilogram ViaSat-3 Americas payload was deployed around four hours and 32 minutes after lift-off, followed by two rideshare payloads: Arcturus, the first broadband satellite built by Californian venture Astranis at under 400 kilograms, and a cubesat from Washington-based Gravity Space with a communications payload.”
Please use the following spaceX.com link for a replay of the launch.
Home