Falcon Heavy Returns with ViaSat-3 F3

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket made a rare appearance on the morning of April 29th, launching the ViaSat-3 F3 spacecraft towards geostationary orbit. After an eighteen-month gap in its manifest, the tricore launch vehicle has returned for what could be the first of three flights in 2026.

After scrubbing an attempt Monday due to poor weather, Falcon Heavy lifted off at 10:13 AM Eastern Daylight Time from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After separation, the twin side boosters returned to the launch site, performing their signature double landing at pads LZ-2 and the relatively new LZ-40. Meanwhile, the expended center core and second stage completed a nominal ascent for the mission. A third burn from the second stage, followed by spacecraft separation, is planned to occur nearly five hours into the flight.

For Viasat, the spacecraft now headed for geostationary orbit is the third and final link in its ViaSat-3 broadband internet constellation. The first satellite in the network, ViaSat-3 F1, was also launched on a Falcon Heavy in 2023, though an antenna failure after launch impaired its capacity. That spacecraft yielded its spot over the Americas to the F2 satellite, launched aboard an Atlas V last November, and is now serving Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The newly-launched F3 satellite will hover above the Asia-Pacific region, completing the system’s global coverage. Each spacecraft masses six tons and is designed to support 1 terabit per second of total capacity.

This is the first time Falcon Heavy has flown since launching NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft in October of 2024. While the single-core Falcon 9 has flown well over 600 times, its heavy-lift cousin has had a much lighter cadence, with just 12 flights to date. Most of its future payloads through 2028 will be missions for the Space Force and National Reconnaissance Office. As SpaceX seeks to transition operations to its upcoming Starship launch vehicle, LC-39A will eventually stop hosting Falcon 9 altogether, leaving the legacy pad infrastructure the sole domain of Falcon Heavy.

Still, at least two other flights of Falcon Heavy are planned in 2026. The launch of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope was recently pulled forward by 8 months to a launch in September, while Astrobotic’s Griffin Mission One, set to land on the Moon as part of the CLPS initiative, is set for launch no earlier than July.