MOSCOW, May 1. SpaceX launched a Falcon Heavy launch vehicle with ViaSat 3 Americas satellites, according to the company's Twitter page.
«Take off! … The fairings are separated. Load relief is expected in 4.5 hours,» the message says.
Earlier Saturday, a Falcon Heavy launch that could have set a new record for SpaceX's consecutive launches was canceled a minute ahead of schedule.
The launch of the Falcon Heavy with ViaSat 3 Americas satellites, designed to provide Internet signal in rural areas, on passenger airliners and ships, was supposed to follow the launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch vehicle with O3b mPOWER satellites a little earlier.
Falcon 9 with O3b mPOWER satellites for the Luxembourg company SES launched from the spaceport at Cape Canaveral at 1.12 Moscow time on Saturday. It was expected that later, at about 2.29 Moscow time, a Falcon Heavy rocket with the ViaSat 3 Americas mission was to be launched from a nearby launch pad (about 5 kilometers away).
In the event of a successful launch of Falcon Heavy, the launch of two orbital missions with such a short «window» could become a record for SpaceX. In addition, the United States has not carried out such «parallel» launches from the Canaveral launch site since 1966.
For the first time, SpaceX carried out two launches in one day in 2021, then the gap between them was more than 15 hours. In March 2023, two starts were successfully held with a difference of more than four hours.