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SpaceX Scrubs Falcon Heavy Launch for Viasat-3 F3 as Weather Halts Return to Flight

The mission would add more than a terabit per second of internet capacity over Asia and the Pacific.

Overview

  • SpaceX, which stood down Monday moments before liftoff due to weather, said the rocket and Viasat-3 F3 payload are healthy and a new target will be announced.
  • Several outlets reported a possible holdover attempt on Tuesday pending confirmation, reflecting a standard backup plan after a weather scrub.
  • The flight plan calls for the two side boosters, B1072 and B1075, to land back at Cape Canaveral’s LZ-40 and LZ-2 while the center core, B1098, is expended at sea.
  • Viasat’s six-metric-ton satellite will be dropped into a geosynchronous transfer orbit, separate nearly five hours after launch, and use electric thrusters to reach its final slot over about two months before commissioning.
  • The scrub delayed Falcon Heavy’s first mission in more than 18 months and the 12th overall, a flight that also shifted to SpaceX after Ariane 6 delays reshaped commercial launch manifests.