The world’s second most powerful rocket Falcon Heavy reappears after 18 months

Theo Spaceabout eight minutes after launch, the Falcon Heavy’s two side thrusters returned to Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida to land at SpaceX’s landing pad. According to plan, the central thruster stage was not recovered and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean upon completing its mission. The upper stage of the rocket carries the ViaSat-3 F3 satellite into orbit, deploying about 5 hours after launch.

ViaSat-3 F3, a large 6-ton communication satellite, will operate in geostationary orbit 35,786 km above Earth. At this altitude, the orbital velocity coincides with the blue planet’s rotation speed, allowing the satellite to continuously “hover” over the same area. ViaSat-3 F3’s coverage area is wide and provides high-speed broadband services to customers across the Asia-Pacific region.

SpaceX originally planned to launch Falcon Heavy on April 27 but postponed due to bad weather.

Falcon Heavy uses the three lower booster stages of Falcon 9, SpaceX’s main rocket, modified and recombined. The central thrust stage is attached to the upper stage containing the payload, which is the ViaSat-3 F3 satellite during the launch on April 29.

Falcon Heavy produces about 2,300 tons of thrust upon liftoff, making it the second most powerful launch rocket in operation, after NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), which has about 4,000 tons of thrust. SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket can generate nearly 8,000 tons of thrust, but is still in the development stage and not yet officially operational.

Falcon Heavy was first launched in February 2018 in a test to put Elon Musk’s red Tesla Roadster, founder of SpaceX, into orbit around the Sun. The rocket then performed 10 more missions and were all successful. However, before the launch of the ViaSat-3 F3 satellite, this heavy vehicle had no missions for 18 months. The most recent launch took place in October 2024, bringing NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft to Jupiter.

ViaSat-3 F3 is the third ViaSat-3 satellite to reach orbit. The first satellite ViaSat-3 F1 was also launched by Falcon Heavy in April 2023, followed by ViaSat-3 F2, by United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket in November 2025. The first satellite is providing service to customers on commercial flights, the second satellite will serve users in the Americas when it becomes operational next month.