Overview
- SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy lifted off Wednesday at 10:13 a.m. EDT from Kennedy Space Center on its first mission in more than 18 months to launch ViaSat-3 F3.
- The 6,400-kilogram spacecraft is set to separate nearly five hours after liftoff and then use electric propulsion to reach a geostationary slot over the Asia-Pacific.
- Viasat expects commercial service to start in late summer after Boeing completes health checks on the spacecraft and payload.
- F3 uses an L3Harris antenna that deploys under active control, avoiding the “bloom” release step tied to the first satellite’s reflector failure that wiped out most of its planned capacity.
- If F2 and F3 enter service, Viasat projects about 2 terabits per second of added bandwidth that could triple its global capacity, and the company is now exploring smaller, faster-to-build satellites over a canceled ViaSat-4.