SpaceX launching powerful Falcon Heavy rocket for 1st time in 18 months on April 27: Watch it live
Yahoo • • general
Key Points:
- SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket is set to launch for the first time in 18 months, carrying the ViaSat-3 F3 communications satellite from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on April 27, with live coverage available online.
- Falcon Heavy, composed of three modified Falcon 9 boosters, generates 5.1 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, making it the second-most-powerful operational rocket after NASA's Space Launch System.
- The ViaSat-3 F3 satellite, weighing 6.6 tons, will be placed into geostationary orbit to provide high-throughput broadband service across the Asia-Pacific region, completing the ViaSat-3 constellation.
- The two side boosters of Falcon Heavy are planned to land back at Cape Canaveral about eight minutes post-launch, while the central booster will be lost to the Atlantic Ocean; the upper stage will deploy the satellite approximately five hours after liftoff.
