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SpaceX has lined up another launch of its powerful Falcon Heavy rocket from the Space Coast.
In what is currently the sixth planned launch of the powerful rocket, SpaceX plans to send a Viasat satellite into orbit between 2020 and 2022 from the 39A launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center. Viasat, based in California, announced the deal Thursday.
Falcon Heavy has only been launched once before, as part of a demonstration flight that sent a Tesla Roadster into space in February from the Kennedy Space Center. Thousands of spectators gathered on the Space Coast, queuing on Playalinda Beach and near the Kennedy Space Center to watch the takeoff of the Falcon Heavy, sending huge smokes of smoke onto the launch pad.
The rocket is the most powerful American rocket since the Saturn V, which took men to the moon. It can lift up to 141,000 pounds in low Earth orbit.
Global communications company Viasat said it chose the Falcon Heavy especially for its ability to fly almost directly to its final destination in a geostationary orbit – instead of having to perform a set of maneuvers before reaching that destination.
By accessing the geostationary orbit directly, the ViaSat-3 satellite will be able to activate its high-speed broadband service faster than when it is launched with a different rocket, the company said. Together, the three ViaSat-3 satellites, one of which will ship on Falcon Heavy, are designed to provide a network capacity of more than one terabit per second to customers in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.
"We chose SpaceX because they continue to demonstrate their commitment to advancing space technologies," Dave Ryan, president of Space Systems at Viasat, said in a statement. "Their proven technology is both powerful and efficient for propelling a ViaSat-3 spacecraft close to the geostationary orbit."
Two more Falcon Heavy launches are planned for next year from Space Coast: an Arabsat satellite and the Air Force's space test program 2 mission, which will send military and scientific research satellites into orbit.
The launch of the Air Force Space Command-52 satellite in 2020 and the first geostationary satellite of the Swedish company Ovzon at the end of 2020 are also planned. London-based London-based Inmarsat has also signed a flight contract with Falcon Heavy. satellite for launch again.
Want more news from the space? Follow Go For Launch on Facebook. Contact the reporter at [email protected] or 407-420-5660; Twitter @ChabeliH
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