Watch the Launch

Additional Media

ViaSat-3 Americas Mission

SpaceX is targeting Sunday, April 30 for a Falcon Heavy launch of the ViaSat-3 Americas mission to geostationary orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NA...

ViaSat-3 Americas Mission

SpaceX is targeting Wednesday, April 26 for a Falcon Heavy launch of the ViaSat-3 Americas mission to geostationary orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at...

SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. The company was founded in 2002 to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets.

ViaSat-3 Americas & others

Circle Image

Overview

Destination: Geostationary Orbit
Mission: Communications

Geostationary Orbit Launch Complex 39A Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA Probability: 95%
B1053 - Atlantic Ocean B1068 - Atlantic Ocean B1052 - Atlantic Ocean

The ViaSat-3 is a series of three Ka-band satellites is expected to provide vastly superior capabilities in terms of service speed and flexibility for a satellite platform. Each ViaSat-3 class satellite is expected to deliver more than 1-Terabit per second of network capacity, and to leverage high levels of flexibility to dynamically direct capacity to where customers are located. Also onboard this mission is Astranis's first MicroGEO satellite and Gravity Space’s GS-1 satellite.

Telemetry

Launch trajectory and telemetry simulations provided by Flight Club - a rocket launch simulator and orbital trajectory visualiser for all things space!

Updates

Cosmic_Penguin • May 1, 2023, 5:34 a.m.

Launch success.


Cosmic_Penguin • May 1, 2023, 12:26 a.m.

Liftoff.


LL2 • May 1, 2023, 12:09 a.m.

Livestream has started


Jay • April 30, 2023, 11:47 p.m.

Weather 95%


Nosu • April 30, 2023, 11:26 p.m.

Adding T-0 precision


Falcon Heavy

Family:
Configuration: Heavy

The Falcon Heavy is a variant of the Falcon 9 full thrust launch vehicle and consists of a standard Falcon 9 rocket core, with two additional boosters derived from the Falcon 9 first stage.

See Details
Specifications
  • Stages
    3
  • Length
    70.0 m
  • Diameter
    12.2 m
  • Fairing Diameter
  • Launch Mass
    1400.0 T
  • Thrust
    22819.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    Falcon Heavy
  • Family
  • Variant
    Heavy
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Falcon Heavy
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    $90000000
  • Low Earth Orbit
    63800.0 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
    26700.0 kg
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

Booster Info


B1053

Status: Expended


Type: Strap-On Booster
Flight Proven: Yes
First Flight: April 11, 2019
Last Flight: May 1, 2023
Flights: 3
Landings Attempted: 2
Landings Successful: 2
Previous B1053 Flights

Landing Information

B1053 was expended following its third flight.

Strap-On Booster will be expended.

B1068


Type: Core
Flight Proven: No
First Flight: May 1, 2023
Last Flight: May 1, 2023
Flights: 1

Landing Information

B1068 was expended after its first flight.

Core will be expended.

B1052

Status: Expended


Type: Strap-On Booster
Flight Proven: Yes
First Flight: April 11, 2019
Last Flight: May 1, 2023
Flights: 8
Landings Attempted: 7
Landings Successful: 7
Previous B1052 Flights

Landing Information

B1052 was expended following its 8th flight.

Strap-On Booster will be expended.

SpaceX

SpaceX

(SpX)

CEO: Elon Musk Founded: 2002 Successes: 434 Failures: 12 Pending: 112

Agency Type:

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars. SpaceX operates from many pads, on the East Coast of the US they operate from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and historic LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. They also operate from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, usually for polar launches. Another launch site is being developed at Boca Chica, Texas.

INFO WIKI

Related News

SpaceNews

ViaSat-3 satellite begins service for U.S. Marine Corps

The satellite, which covers the Americas, is now supporting the Marine Wing Communications Squadron 38 and the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment

SpaceNews

Viasat preparing to start services from hobbled ViaSat-3 satellite

Viasat expects to start providing Wi-Fi to planes by the end of June from ViaSat-3 F1, the satellite that lost more than 90% of its 1 terabit per second capacity after an antenna deployment failure last year.

SpaceNews

ViaSat-3 failure investigation to conclude next week

Viasat expects to know next week what caused the antenna deployment issue that severely impaired its debut ViaSat-3 broadband satellite over the Americas, the operator’s CEO announced during earnings results Nov. 8.

CNBC

Viasat won’t replace damaged Americas satellite, moves up financial targets

Viasat shares rose on Thursday after the company said it expects to meet financial growth targets earlier than expected and that it won’t need to replace a damaged $750 million communications satellite.

SpaceNews

Viasat has enough throughput on ViaSat-3 Americas to avoid replacement

Viasat has ruled out ordering a ViaSat-3 Americas replacement as it expects to recover a fraction of the satellite’s 1 terabit per second capacity, the operator said Oct. 12 around three months after disclosing its antenna issue.

Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

Launch Complex 39A


Falcon 9
Success
4 days, 3 hours ago
Starlink Group 12-2
Launch Complex 39A - Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

A batch of 21 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Electron
Success
5 days, 18 hours ago
StriX Launch 6
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B - Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand

Synthetic aperture radar satellites for Japanese Earth imaging company Synspective.


Falcon 9
Success
5 days, 21 hours ago
Bandwagon 2 (Dedicated Mid-Inclination Rideshare)
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

Dedicated rideshare flight to a mid-inclination orbit with dozens of small microsatellites and nanosatellites for commercial and government customers…


Long March 3
Success
6 days, 17 hours ago
TJSW-12
Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) - Xichang Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Chinese classified satellite claimed to be for communication technology test purposes. Actual mission not known.


Ceres-1S
Success
1 week ago
Tianqi 33-36
Oriental Spaceport mobile launch ship - Sea Launch

4 small satellites for LEO Internet of Things (IoT) communication purposes.


KAIROS
Failure
1 week, 2 days ago
Flight 2
Space One Launch Pad - Spaceport Kii, Japan

Second flight of the KAIROS launch vehicle. 5 satellites for testing various technologies will be on board: * TATARA-1 * PARUS-T1A * SC-Sat1…


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 2 days ago
O3b mPower 7 & 8
Launch Complex 39A - Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

Seventh and eighth of a constellation of eleven high-throughput communications satellites in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) built by Boeing and operated by…


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 2 days ago
NROL-149
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

Sixth batch of satellites for a reconnaissance satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for the National Reconnaissance Office to…


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 3 days ago
GPS III SV07 (RRT-1)
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

GPS-III (Global Positioning System) is the first evolution stage of the third generation of the GPS satellites. It consists of the first ten (known a…


Long March 2D
Success
1 week, 3 days ago
PIESAT-2 09-12
Launch Complex 9 - Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

4 X-band synthetic-aperture radar Earth observation satellites for the Chinese Earth observation satellite company PIESAT.