SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket is set to roar back to life on Monday morning after an 18-month hiatus, carrying the final piece of a global broadband constellation designed to blanket the Asia-Pacific region with high-speed internet.
The launch, scheduled for 10:21 a.m. EDT from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A, marks only the 12th flight of the heavy-lift vehicle since its debut in 2018 and its first since October 2024, when it sent NASA’s Europa Clipper probe toward Jupiter. This time, the payload is ViaSat-3 F3, a 6.6-ton communications satellite built by Boeing that will complete a three-satellite network intended to deliver secure, high-capacity broadband to commercial, defense and civilian users across half the globe.
What makes this launch notable isn’t just the payload or the rocket’s return — it’s the sonic spectacle expected to follow. Approximately eight minutes after liftoff, the two side boosters are slated to execute a synchronized return to Landing Zones 40 and 2 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, generating a pair of double sonic booms that could rattle windows across Central Florida. SpaceX has warned residents in Brevard, Orange, Osceola, Indian River, Seminole, Volusia, Polk, St. Lucie and Okeechobee counties that they may hear the sharp crack-crack of the boosters breaking the sound barrier, though actual audibility will depend on weather, cloud cover and trajectory.
The center core, meanwhile, will not be recovered. Consistent with past Falcon Heavy missions, SpaceX has abandoned efforts to retrieve the central booster, which will instead fall into the Atlantic after propelling the satellite toward geosynchronous transfer orbit. This expendable approach underscores a persistent trade-off: while the side boosters are reused to cut costs, the complexity and performance demands of the core stage make recovery impractical for now.
For more on this story, see SpaceX launches final GPS III satellite for U.S. Space Force.
Weather remains a variable. The U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron forecasts a 70% chance of acceptable conditions for launch, improving to 90% if delayed by 24 hours. A backup window opens Tuesday at 10:17 a.m. Later that evening, a second launch will light up the Space Coast — a United Launch Alliance Atlas V carrying 29 Amazon Leo broadband satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 41, with an 85% chance of favorable conditions Monday night.
For ViaSat, the stakes are strategic. Once operational, ViaSat-3 F3 will finalize a constellation that, according to Chairman and CEO Mark Dankberg, will become “a cornerstone of our unified, global, high-capacity network.” The first satellite, ViaSat-3 F1, launched on a Falcon Heavy in April 2023 and entered service in 2024. The second, ViaSat-3 F2, rode an Atlas V in November 2025 and is currently in testing. Together, the three satellites are designed to provide seamless coverage from approximately 22,000 miles above Earth, with F3 focused specifically on the Asia-Pacific.
The Falcon Heavy itself remains a study in restrained power. Its three Falcon 9-derived boosters generate 5.1 million pounds of thrust at liftoff — second only to NASA’s SLS moon rocket among operational launchers, though still dwarfed by the developmental Starship’s 16.7 million pounds. Yet despite its capability, the rocket flies infrequently, reserved for heavy or high-energy missions that exceed the Falcon 9’s limits.
This launch continues a pattern of cautious reuse. One of the side boosters is on its 22nd flight; the other, its second. The repeated flights highlight SpaceX’s progress in turning what was once an experimental heavy-lift system into a reliable, if infrequent, workhorse — one that still commands attention when it flies, not just for what it carries, but for the thunder it leaves behind.
Why hasn’t SpaceX recovered the Falcon Heavy’s center booster?
SpaceX has determined that recovering the central core is not currently practical due to the high velocity and thermal stress it experiences during flight, especially on geosynchronous transfer orbit missions like this one. The company prioritizes reusing the side boosters, which can be landed and refurbished, while accepting the core’s loss as a trade-off for mission success.
Will the sonic booms be dangerous or damaging?
The sonic booms from the booster landings are expected to be loud but not hazardous. They may startle residents or trigger car alarms, but they do not pose a risk of structural damage or injury under normal conditions. Actual perception depends on atmospheric factors like temperature inversions and wind direction.
