It has been more than a year since SpaceX successfully completed the first demo flight of the long-awaited Falcon Heavy, and today could be its first commercial flight. Following a last-minute delay, SpaceX expects to launch the Arabsat-6A from NASA’s historic Pad 39A this evening. The Falcon Heavy makes use of the highly successful Falcon 9 design — it’s actually composed of three Falcon 9 core stages with a few design tweaks. The standard Falcon 9 still carries the bulk of SpaceX payloads (including the upcoming manned Dragon II), but the company hopes to move all launches to the Starship/Super Heavy platform in the coming years. Until then, the Falcon Heavy is the most powerful launch vehicle in the world, which is why Arabsat choose the Falcon Heavy to deploy its 13,200-pound (6,000 kilograms) telecommunications satellite. SpaceX initially wanted to launch the Arabsat-6A yesterday (April 9), but the weather didn’t permit. The 45th Weather Squadron projects an 80 percent chance of good weather at launch time tonight, currently scheduled for 6:36 PM EDT. The satellite will be deployed about 34 minutes after launch, but it’s those first 34 minutes that will be of most interest to space enthusiasts. SpaceX says it will land the two side boosters at Landing Zones 1 and 2 (LZ-1 and LZ-2) at Cape Canaveral Air Force, just like it did in last year’s test. After that, SpaceX hopes to land the center stage on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Atlantic Ocean. This part of the demo flight didn’t work out because of a partial engine failure, leading to the booster hitting the ocean at more than 300 miles per hour. All three cores on the launchpad tonight are newly constructed. SpaceX has high hopes for the recovery of rockets during this launch. The side boosters are already scheduled for re-use in June on another Falcon Heavy flight. That’s the US Air Force’s STP-2 payload, consisting of more than two dozen satellites. SpaceX has not put the Arabsat-6A center stage on the roster for that flight. You can watch the launch live via the video embed above. The launch window lasts until 8:32 PM EDT, so there’s some wiggle room if the weather is less than ideal. If the launch gets scrubbed again, SpaceX will have another chance on Thursday evening. Now read:<doc-sep>UPDATE: SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Scheduled To Launch From Cape Canaveral on April 30 By Space Coast Daily // April 19, 2019 Launch window opens at 4:20 a.m. ET BREVARD COUNTY • CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA – SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday, April 30. Launch window opens at 4:20 a.m. According to SpaceFlight Now, the rocket will launch the 19th Dragon spacecraft mission on its 17th operational cargo delivery flight to the International Space Station. The launch will SpaceX’s first launch since their historic Falcon Heavy launch on Thursday that accomplished three perfect booster engine landings. CLICK HERE FOR BREVARD COUNTY NEWS<doc-sep>Space travel technology company SpaceX is planning another mission for its Falcon Heavy rocket Wednesday, evening April 10. The rocket's primary launch window opens at 6:35 p.m. EDT from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rocket will be launching the Arabsat-6A satellite. The Arabsat-6A satellite will deliver television, radio, internet and mobile communications to customers in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. After booster separation the Falcon Heavy's two side boosters will attempt to land it at SpaceX's Landing Zones 1 and 2 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. SpaceX's website claims the Falcon Heavy is the most powerful rocket in the world and can lift nearly 64 metric tons of weight into orbit, more than twice the payload of the next biggest rocket. It cost about $90 million to build. listen live watch live<doc-sep>
What to Know Wednesday's launch is scheduled for 3:35 p.m. California time It is the first commercial launch of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket SpaceX will attempt to recover all three of the rockets in the Falcon Heavy array Southern California-based SpaceX scrubbed a scheduled launch of its Falcon Heavy rocket Wednesday because of unfavorable weather conditions at the launch site on the coast of Florida. The company said it plans to try again Thursday. "Standing down from today's Falcon Heavy launch attempt; next opportunity is tomorrow, April 11," SpaceX tweeted. The Falcon Heavy, an array of three rockets, will carry a communications satellite into orbit from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The launch will be the second flight for Falcon Heavy and its first commercial mission. The rocket is scheduled to carry a 13,200-pound Arabsat-6A satellite into orbit, providing communications services to areas of Africa, Europe and the Middle East. It's the same type of rocket that carried "Starman," the mannequin in a space suit behind the wheel of a Tesla roadster, into space in a February 2018 test mission. The 230-feet-tall, 27-engine Falcon Heavy is essentially triple the size of SpaceX's traditional Falcon 9 rockets. SpaceX says its liftoff thrust is roughly equivalent to 18 full-powered 747 jetliners. The Falcon Heavy includes a behemoth center rocket booster, coupled with two side rocket boosters. The most visually spectacular part of last year's Falcon Heavy launch occurred when SpaceX successfully landed the two Falcon 9 side rockets simultaneously back on land at Cape Canaveral following the launch. The company attempted, but failed, to recover the center booster rocket on a barge floating in the Atlantic Ocean. The company will again attempt to recover all three of the rockets in the array on this week's launch — two on land and one at sea.