Tag: April 30

SpaceX Falcon Heavy Lifts Off Following Scrubbed Mission

UPI reports that SpaceX launched a Falcon Heavy rocket on Sunday night from Kennedy Space Center’s pad 39A, loaded with a payload of competitor ViaSat-3 Americas broadband Internet satellite, as well as satellites by Astranis and Gravity Space. The mission “was scheduled to launch Friday evening but the mission was aborted with less than a minute left in the countdown.” Unlike most SpaceX missions, neither the side boosters “nor the core of the Falcon Heavy rocket will be recovered as ‘a lot of extra performance’ was required to deliver ViaSat-3’s 13,000-pound satellite into geostationary orbit above the Earth, Atticus Vadera, propulsion engineer with SpaceX, said during the live broadcast.” ViaSat-3 Americas satellite “is part of its network that seeks to provide satellite Internet the world over and is a competitor to SpaceX’s own Starlink Internet satellite constellation.”
Full Story (UPI)

 

Video

ViaSat-3 Americas Mission
On Sunday, April 30 at 8:26 p.m. ET, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy launched the ViaSat-3 Americas mission from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
(SpaceX; YouTube)

Rocket Lab Shifts NASA Cubesat Launches from Virginia to New Zealand

Space News reports that Rocket Lab has relocated a pair of Electron launches of NASA storm-monitoring cubesats from LC-2 in Wallops Island, Virginia, to LC-1 New Zealand. Rocket Lab’s launches will each carry two TROPICS cubsats. The first launch – dubbed “Rocket Like a Hurricane” by the company – is scheduled for no earlier than April 30. The second – dubbed “Coming to a Storm Near You” – is scheduled for May 15. Each launch will carry two TROPICS cubesats. The article adds that the company “did not disclose why the launches could not take place from LC-2 as originally planned other than that the shift to New Zealand would ensure they would launch in the second quarter. However, the change does avoid a potential conflict with a Northrop Grumman Antares launch of a Cygnus cargo mission to the International Space Station.”
Full Story (Space News)