At 11:04 p.m. local time, Space Exploration Technologies’ three-body Falcon Heavy aircraft carrying a massive satellite lifted off from the company’s launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The flight continues, the deployment of the device is scheduled for about three and a half hours after launch.
The Jupiter 3 satellite, which weighs more than nine tons and is about the size of a bus, will provide wireless Internet connectivity throughout the Americas. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has decided not to rebuild the center section of its Falcon Heavy rocket to ensure it has enough fuel to carry the bulky payload to its intended orbit. However, the craft’s two side boosters successfully landed on SpaceX’s dual landing pads in Florida, the agency said. They have also flown two previous Falcon Heavy missions in 2023.
Friday’s launch was the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket’s third of the year and the company’s 51st mission into orbit this year. Just the day before, SpaceX had launched another Falcon 9 rocket from another company launch pad in Florida, which was carrying a new batch of Starlink internet satellites.
