SpaceX’s rare Falcon Heavy was halted at T-23 seconds, but a new attempt could come Tuesday
Florida’s Space Coast was primed for one of its most exciting mornings of the year today, April 27. SpaceX had a rare Falcon Heavy rocket ready to go from Kennedy Space Center, and a United Launch Alliance Atlas V was sitting on a separate pad for what would have been a highly unusual same-day double launch. Then, with just 23 seconds left on the countdown clock, the whole thing came to a sudden stop.
How the scrub unfolded
The Falcon Heavy was scheduled to lift off during an 85-minute window opening at 10:21 a.m. EDT, carrying the ViaSat-3 F3 broadband communications satellite toward geostationary orbit. The mission had been the vehicle’s first planned flight in 18 months, and anticipation on the ground was high. Weather had been flagged as a potential concern heading into the morning, with thick dark clouds sitting offshore and rain moving over the launch site.
As the countdown approached its final seconds, the call came over the SpaceX webcast: Hold! Hold! Hold! Because of the way Falcon Heavy fueling works, once that hold is called so late in the sequence, the launch attempt cannot be salvaged and must be aborted entirely. The rocket never left the pad.
SpaceX has not officially confirmed a new launch date, but according to a Federal Aviation Administration advisory, the earliest possible next opportunity would be Tuesday, April 28, with a window opening at 10:14 a.m. EDT from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. Sonic booms are expected when the vehicle eventually does fly, as the trajectory takes it east over the Atlantic.
About the ViaSat-3 F3 payload
The satellite sitting aboard the Falcon Heavy is no small piece of hardware. The ViaSat-3 F3 is a 6.6-ton communications satellite built by Boeing and designed to deliver high-speed broadband coverage across the Asia-Pacific region for commercial, defense and consumer customers. It will be the fourth ViaSat-3 series satellite launched aboard a Falcon Heavy, operating at an altitude of roughly 22,236 miles above Earth in geostationary orbit.
The Falcon Heavy’s considerable power offers a practical advantage for this mission. Its 3 modified Falcon 9 first-stage boosters generate a combined 5.1 million pounds of thrust, making it the second most powerful operational rocket currently flying, behind only NASA’s Space Launch System. That extra capability allows the satellite to be placed in a more favorable transfer orbit, which reduces the time needed before it becomes fully operational.
This week’s full Florida launch schedule
Despite today’s scrub, the Space Coast still has plenty of activity lined up. Here is the full schedule for the week, though all dates remain subject to weather and technical conditions:
- Amazon Leo 6 on a ULA Atlas V (Monday, April 27): A batch of 29 Amazon Leo broadband internet satellites, launching at 8:52 p.m. ET from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 41. No sonic booms expected.
- ViaSat-3 F3 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy (Tuesday, April 28, earliest): The scrubbed today mission, with a new launch window opening at 10:14 a.m. ET from Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A. Sonic booms expected.
- Starlink 10-38 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 (Friday, May 1): A batch of 29 Starlink satellites heading to low-Earth orbit during a four-hour window running from 1:33 p.m. to 5:33 p.m. ET from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 40. No sonic booms expected.
Record pace continues and Artemis III inches closer
Florida’s Space Coast has already recorded 29 orbital launches in 2026 as of April 27, building on a record-setting 109 launches in 2025. The year got off to a historic start when NASA’s Artemis II mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in early April, sending four astronauts on a lunar flyby farther from Earth than any human crew has traveled since the Apollo era.
The next milestone is already in motion. NASA’s Pegasus barge arrived through Port Canaveral this morning carrying the massive orange core stage of the Artemis III rocket, transported from the Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana. The core stage is set to be offloaded into Kennedy Space Center early Tuesday and will begin stacking inside the Vehicle Assembly Building ahead of the mission’s planned 2027 launch, with a moon landing targeted for 2028.
For those hoping to watch any of this week’s launches in person or from home, live coverage is typically available ahead of each liftoff, and NASA content can be streamed through NASA+ across multiple platforms.