SpaceX Targets Wednesday Falcon Heavy Launch After Monday Weather Scrub
SpaceX planned a falcon heavy launch for Wednesday after Monday’s weather scrub pushed the mission back from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The rocket was set to lift off from Launch Complex 39A at 10:13 a.m. EDT. The delay matters because the flight is carrying ViaSat-3 F3, the third and final satellite in the series.
Launch Complex 39A Wednesday
The launch window ran 85 minutes, and the 45th Weather Squadron gave the attempt a 90 percent chance of favorable conditions. Thick clouds were the main concern. SpaceX was using Falcon Heavy for the 12th flight of the rocket, which debuted in 2018.
ViaSat-3 F3 on Falcon Heavy
ViaSat-3 F3 is a six metric ton spacecraft that was expected to deploy nearly five hours after liftoff into geosynchronous transfer orbit. Dave Abrahamian, Viasat’s vice president of Satellite Systems, said the satellite would mean more free airborne WiFi and 4K streaming for airline customers as the spacecraft enters service.
“As the spacecraft enters service, I think what you’re going to see is more and more of our airline customers providing free use of airborne WiFi.”
“You can stream Netflix at 4K in the sky.”
Abrahamian also said, “Falcon Heavy is a more powerful vehicle than Atlas 5 was, so they can put us in a more favorable transfer orbit for the electric propulsion”.
Booster landings and orbit raising
The two side boosters on the mission were tail numbers 1072 and 1075. Booster 1072 was flying for a second time, while booster 1075 was flying for a 22nd time. One side booster was set to land at Landing Zone 2 and the other at Landing Zone 40, while core stage booster B1098 was planned to fall into the Atlantic Ocean.
After deployment, orbit raising to the operating position at 158.55 degrees East along the equator was expected to take about two months. Abrahamian said the satellite would then need at least a couple of months for deployment stages and checkouts before Boeing handed it over to Viasat.
The complication is simple: this launch was already scrubbed once on Monday because of poor weather, and the mission still has to survive another weather call before ViaSat-3 F3 can start the long climb to service.
