SpaceX is preparing to launch Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A on Monday, April 27, ending a two-year launch gap for the company’s most powerful operational rocket. This mission will loft Viasat’s ViaSat-3 F3 communications satellite toward geostationary transfer orbit, the final spacecraft in the company’s three-satellite global broadband constellation.

An 85-minute launch window opens at 10:21 AM EDT. If needed, a backup opportunity is available Tuesday, April 28th, during an 85-minute window that opens at 10:17 AM EDT.

While the center core will be expended, SpaceX intends to return the Falcon Heavy side cores to Cape Canaveral, with one landing at the company’s new landing pad at SLC-40 and the other touching down at Landing Zone 2. SpaceX’s lease for LC-13, the location of the former LZ-1 and LZ-2 ended in 2025, necessitating the construction of the SLC-40 landing pad. As for LZ-2, despite SpaceX’s lease ending there, Space Launch Delta 45 (the US Space Force) has allowed continued access on a case-by-case or temporary basis.

Payload

ViaSat-3 F3 is a high-capacity Ka-band geostationary satellite built by Boeing at its El Segundo, California, manufacturing facility. The spacecraft is designed to deliver more than 1 terabit per second of throughput to the Asia-Pacific region, with dynamic beam-forming capabilities that allow Viasat to shift capacity in real time to where demand is highest: busy commercial flight corridors, congested maritime shipping lanes and military operations, according to the company.

The satellite arrived at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on April 7 after an eight-day cross-country truck journey from Boeing’s El Segundo plant, riding inside an environmentally controlled container to protect its sensitive hardware. Boeing and Viasat teams have been working jointly at the Cape to complete pre-launch processing and encapsulation ahead of integration with the Falcon Heavy.

Once deployed, ViaSat-3 F3 will spend several months climbing from its initial transfer orbit to its reserved geostationary slot using onboard electric propulsion. Viasat expects the satellite to enter commercial service by late summer 2026 following in-orbit testing of both the bus and the payload.

In Brief

	Details
Mission	Falcon Heavy | ViaSat-3 — Go for Launch!
Organization	SpaceX
Customer / Payload Provider	Viasat
Location	Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA
Rocket	Falcon Heavy
Pad	Launch Complex 39A
Status	Go for Launch
Status Info	Current T-0 confirmed by official or reliable sources.
Window Opens	Monday, 04/27/2026 10:21 AM
Window Closes	Monday, 04/27/2026 11:46 AM
Destination	Geostationary Transfer Orbit
Mission Description	ViaSat-3 is a series of three Ka-band satellites expected to provide vastly superior capabilities in terms of service speed and flexibility for a satellite platform. Each ViaSat-3 class satellite is expected to deliver more than 1 Terabit per second of network capacity, and to leverage high levels of flexibility to dynamically direct capacity to where customers are located.
Broadcast Start Time	Coverage typically begins ~15 minutes before launch.
SpaceX Streaming Coverage	Watch Live on SpaceX.com
Spaceflight Now YouTube Coverage	Watch on YouTube – Spaceflight Now Live Stream

As of Sunday, April 19, 2026. Launch times are subject to change or cancellation at any time. Consult SpaceX.com for more information.