Inside the SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch That Had Florida Holding Its Breath

On Wednesday, April 29, at 10:13 a.m. Eastern, the Falcon Heavy took off from Kennedy Space Center. For a brief moment, the Florida coast was reminded of the times when SpaceX regularly launched its massive triple-booster rocket. The last one was a year and a half ago. It was long enough that some of the local photographers who used to set up their long lenses at the causeway had stopped looking at the schedule. As this mission progresses, it seems like Falcon Heavy is evolving into something more uncommon than anyone anticipated in 2018.

This time, the payload was the 6.6-ton communications satellite ViaSat-3 F3, which is on its way to geostationary orbit, where it will eventually settle over the Asia-Pacific region and begin transmitting broadband. According to ViaSat, the satellite won’t be operational until late summer. After several weeks of testing and months of slowly drifting through space, a customer in Jakarta or Manila may notice that their internet is suddenly faster. These things work that way.

Due to the weather, Monday’s attempt was abandoned. The typical list of minor hostile factors that work against Florida launches includes strong winds and the wrong kind of clouds. The rocket had already been fueled when SpaceX canceled it less than thirty seconds before takeoff. The vehicle in the launch pad footage was dressed up and had nowhere to go. The conditions cleared by Wednesday, and there were no complaints when the countdown reached zero.

Falcon Heavy is still an odd engineering feat. With three Falcon 9 first stages strapped together and 27 engines running simultaneously, it has more raw thrust than anything currently in commercial flight. Only NASA’s Space Launch System is more powerful than this rocket. In previous interviews, Musk acknowledged that the program was on the verge of cancellation on multiple occasions due to the integration work’s actual difficulty. You understand why. It’s not insignificant when three rockets act like one.

However, the satellite isn’t what makes this mission intriguing. The timing is the issue. The majority of SpaceX’s long-term goals are evidently now focused on Starship, which is expected to eventually transport people to the Moon and Mars and produces more than three times the thrust of Falcon Heavy. Test flights for Starship have been difficult. Redesigns, scrubs, and explosions. Falcon Heavy continues to operate in silence in the interim. Twelve trips, twelve successes. The contrast is difficult to ignore.

A few minutes after launch, the two side boosters returned to land at Cape Canaveral, sending the well-known double sonic boom across Brevard County. In order to give the satellite the necessary trajectory, the center core was expended into the Atlantic. That part is also not new. The center booster is typically lost on heavy missions to high orbits.

All of this gives the impression that Falcon Heavy is nearing the end of its existence. The majority of SpaceX’s upcoming heavy-lift projects are planned around Starship. Falcon Heavy’s former clients are being discreetly redirected to other locations. For a rocket that was once considered the future, twelve missions in eight years isn’t much. However, the rocket continues to function. It continues to land. And it continued to fly on Wednesday morning for the first time in eighteen months.