Falcon Heavy successfully completes sixth mission in its history - SpaceX sends three satellites into space

SpaceX waited for the right weather conditions and sent three satellites into space with Falcon Heavy. This is only the sixth mission in the history of Elon Musk's big rocket.

Here's What We Know

Over the weekend we wrote that SpaceX postponed the mission launch due to thick fog. Falcon Heavy was launched on May 1 at 21:26 (EDT) or 18:26 (PDT). The rocket carried three satellites into space for delivery to a distant geostationary orbit.

The main payload is the ViaSat-3 Americas telecommunications vehicle. It weighs nearly 6.5 tons. Falcon Heavy also sent Astranis Space Technologies' Arcturus satellite and Gravity Space's GS-1 cubesat into space. All three satellites were successfully deployed 4.5 hours after launch.

The mission was the sixth in Falcon Heavy's history and the second since early 2023. In January, the rocket orbited a military satellite for the U.S. Space Force as part of the covert USSF-67 mission. The debut mission for Falcon Heavy was to launch the Tesla Roadster electric car into orbit around the Sun in 2018.

It's worth noting that as part of today's mission, none of the boosters will be able to return to Earth. Although the rocket boosters are designed to be reusable, they simply have no fuel left to return.

Source: SpaceX