SpaceX’s most powerful operational rocket, the Falcon Heavy, lifted off Wednesday carrying a massive communications satellite on its 12th flight since 2018. The 27 Merlin engines of the three Falcon boosters roared to life at 10:13 a.m. EDT (1413 UTC) and the 70-meter-tall (229.6 ft) rocket thundered away from Launch Complex 39A propelled by 5 million pounds of thrust.
Less than 2.5 minutes after liftoff, the side boosters, tail numbers B1072 and B1075, throttled down on their engines and separated from the center core, tail number B1098. Both side boosters performed a boost back burn lasting more than a minute to put them on track towards two landing pads at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The center core, B1098, continued on for another 90 seconds before the second stage separated and began the first of three burns over five hours to deliver the ViaSat-3 F3 satellite to a geosynchronous transfer orbit.
Less than eight minutes after the flight began, B1072 and B1075 reignited their center engines and touched down at Landing Zone 2 and Landing Zone 40. This was the first Falcon Heavy rocket launch to use SpaceX’s newest landing pad at Space Launch Complex 40. As with most Falcon Heavy missions, SpaceX did not recover the center core.
One more ignition of the Merlin Vacuum engine on the upper stage was on tap before deployment of the satellite came at nearly five hours after liftoff. The upper stage featured an additional thermal protection layer to ensure the fuel, a rocket-grade kerosene, does not freeze during the roughly four-hour coasting phase between the second and third engine ignitions.
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The ViaSat-3 F3 satellite is the second in the series to be launched onboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket and the third and final member of this constellation. The first satellite, ViaSat-3 Americas, launched on a Falcon Heavy rocket in 2023.
After the satellite is released, it will undergo an orbit-raising phase lasting approximately two months before reaching its operational position at 155.58 degrees East along the equator. This third and final satellite in the ViaSat-3 constellation will focus on coverage over the Asia-Pacific region and is expected to add more than one terabit per second (Tbps) of capacity to the overall Viasat network.
“We have a number of airline customers in the APAC region who are eager to get this capacity online so they can better serve their passengers,” Abrahamian said. “Two key strengths of the ViaSat-3 constellation are its massive total capacity and its flexibility to deliver that capacity wherever and whenever it is needed. “Unlike traditional satellites, such as ViaSat-1, Ka-Sat, or much of the Inmarsat fleet, which rely on fixed beam locations, fixed spectrum allocations, and a single feed per beam, these systems can face inefficiencies. One beam may become overloaded while another remains underutilized, and there is no way to shift that capacity.
”Abrahamian emphasized that the main advantage of these newer satellites lies in their flexibility. “With ViaSat-3, we use phased array technology and onboard antennas that allow us to create beams exactly where they are needed,” he explained. “We can dynamically allocate spectrum, deploy multiple beams in high-demand areas, and avoid the issue of unused or ‘trapped’ capacity. In essence, we can follow demand wherever it arises within the satellite’s coverage area.”
Source: spaceflightnow.com
