SpaceX has resumed flights of the Falcon Heavy heavy-lift rocket, which had not flown for nearly 1.5 years. On April 29, the Falcon Heavy launched from the NASA spaceport at Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying the large ViaSat-3 F3 telecommunications satellite. Ixbt.com reports on this.
This is the third spacecraft in the ViaSat-3 series and serves as the final element of the ViaSat company's mini-constellation.
The satellite, weighing approximately 6.6 tons, headed for geostationary orbit at an altitude of about 35,786 km from Earth. In such an orbit, the satellite moves synchronously with the planet's rotation and can remain constantly over a single region.
In the case of ViaSat-3 F3, it is about covering the Asia-Pacific region with high-speed satellite communication.
The Falcon Heavy consists of three modified Falcon 9 first stages working together. Approximately 4 minutes after launch, the stages successfully separated, and four minutes later, the two side boosters successfully returned to SpaceX landing zones in Florida.
The central booster was not intended to be recovered.
The mission was originally scheduled for April 27, but the launch was postponed due to unfavorable weather. For SpaceX, this flight was a significant event: Falcon Heavy returned to service after a long hiatus.
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