SpaceX is preparing for a Spacex Falcon Heavy Launch on Monday morning from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, sending the ViaSat-3 Flight 3 communications satellite toward geosynchronous transfer orbit. Liftoff from Launch Complex 39A is scheduled for 10: 21 a. m. EDT, at the opening of an 85-minute window, with the mission also expected to feature booster landings in Florida. The launch marks the first Falcon Heavy flight in more than a year and a half.
Mission details and launch timing
The Spacex Falcon Heavy Launch will send a six-metric-ton satellite into orbit, with deployment from the rocket’s upper stage expected nearly five hours after liftoff. The rocket will fly on an easterly trajectory, and the two side boosters are planned to land at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. SpaceX will not attempt to recover the center core, tail number B1098, which is set to be expended into the Atlantic Ocean.
The mission is the 12th flight of a Falcon Heavy rocket, which first flew in 2018. SpaceX will use three boosters for the launch: the two side boosters, tail numbers 1072 and 1075, are flying for a second and 22nd time respectively, while the center core is flying for the first and only time. The launch of the ViaSat-3 F3 mission follows two earlier ViaSat-3 satellites already in orbit.
Weather and launch window
The 45th Weather Squadron is forecasting a 70 percent chance of favorable weather during the Monday launch window. Meteorologists are watching for possible violations of the cumulus cloud and surface electric fields rules. Launch weather officers said a Carolina Low is expected to push a weak back door cold front through central Florida early Monday morning, and that the position of the boundary could affect cloud development over the Spaceport.
SpaceX is preparing a Spacex Falcon Heavy Launch into a window that opens as conditions and range operations allow, with live coverage beginning about two hours before liftoff. The timing leaves little room for delay, and the weather setup remains one of the main variables in the final run-up to flight.
What the mission means for Viasat
Dave Abrahamian, Viasat’s vice president of Satellite Systems, said the program is reaching a turning point after more than 10 years of work. “It’s kind of the end of an era. We’ve been working this program for over 10 years now, ” Abrahamian said. He added that the company has changed significantly since the program began, noting that “we’ve launched the two ViaSat-3s, we merged with Inmarsat, we’ve got the third one ready to go now. ”
Abrahamian said the satellite’s trip to its operating position at 158. 55 degrees East along the equator should take about two months. He said the Falcon Heavy should place the spacecraft into a more favorable transfer orbit for electric propulsion, and that several more months of deployments and checkouts will follow after that. The Spacex Falcon Heavy Launch therefore begins only the first part of a longer mission sequence.
