SpaceX Falcon Heavy is finally Launching after 1.5 Years! Totally beat ULA Vulcan...

How long has it been since you last heard the ground-shaking, triple-booster roar of a Falcon Heavy? If you feel like it's been ages, you're not alone. Compared to the almost daily cadence of the workhorse Falcon 9 or the constant fiery spectacle of Starship development down at Starbase, it's been a remarkably long period of silence for SpaceX's heavy lifter. It's almost like the Falcon Heavy is the mysterious middle child of the SpaceX family. The Falcon 9 is the overachieving firstborn who never misses a day of work, and Starship is the wild teenager constantly blowing things up in the backyard while the Heavy just sits in the garage waiting for someone to give it something truly heavy to carry. But the wait is finally over, and it's time for this powerhouse to make its grand return to the fleet. This isn't just a victory lap, though. Falcon Heavy is coming back to make a massive contribution to SpaceX's orbital dominance, helping the company continue to outpace and maneuver legacy competitors like ULA. So when exactly will Falcon Heavy take flight again, and how will this beast of a rocket perform over the next few busy years? Let's find out everything you need to know on today's episode of Great SpaceX. It's honestly easy to forget that the last Falcon Heavy mission actually happened because so much has changed in the space industry since then. If you're checking your calendars, the most recent mission was back in mid-October of 2024 when it sent the massive Europa Clipper spacecraft on its multi-year journey to investigate Jupiter's icy moon for NASA. Since that mission, the Heavy has been remarkably quiet. This low operational activity isn't because the rocket is bad, it's actually because its younger sibling, the Falcon 9, has become so incredibly capable. Most modern satellites just don't need the massive lift capacity of three cores strapped together, so choosing the cheaper and more flexible Falcon 9 remains the logical choice for most customers. Furthermore, if you launch on a Falcon Heavy, the center core booster is almost always expended, meaning it goes for a one-way trip into the ocean. SpaceX doesn't like throwing away hardware unless they absolutely have to, which makes the Heavy a special occasion rocket. But that doesn't diminish its impact one bit. The sheer power of this heavy lift system is perfectly suited for the biggest, heaviest, and most ambitious payloads humanity has to offer, and the upcoming return of the Falcon Heavy is specifically designed to handle exactly that kind of challenge. The mission that will break this long silence is the launch of the Viasat-3 F3 satellite for Viasat. This is a massive Ka-band communications satellite destined for the Asia-Pacific region, completing a global constellation that already has eyes over the Americas and the Europe-Middle East-Africa regions. We recently got a look at this beast because Boeing Space released images showing the satellite being transported to Cape Canaveral. When you see it in the factory, you realize it's practically the size of a school bus, which explains why it needs the raw muscle of a Falcon Heavy to get to its destination. One of the coolest parts of this satellite is the solar panel array manufactured by Spectrolab Inc. The company has clearly shown its excitement about the We're proud to power the Viasat-3 constellation and the next Viasat-3 satellite with solar arrays built by our team. While we don't have a specific T-minus zero second just yet, SpaceX is targeting April of this year for the launch, especially now that the payload is safely on site at the Cape. What makes this launch even more satisfying for SpaceX fans is the drama behind how they got the contract. Viasat didn't actually start with SpaceX for this mission. They initially selected the European Ariane 6 rock to do the heavy lifting. However, the Ariane 6 has been plagued by so many delays over the last few years that Viasat eventually got tired of waiting and moved the mission over to Falcon Heavy. This is a massive commercial victory for SpaceX, effectively proving that the most reliable way to get to space is to ride with the company that actually is flying. Now, if you're a fan of the visual spectacle, you're probably wondering about the landings. We all remember that iconic first flight in 2018 where the two side boosters touched down in perfect synchronization like a choreographed space ballet. But things have changed at the Cape recently. LZ-1 was officially retired in August of 2025, which might have some people worried. However, LZ-2 is still operational, and SpaceX has even established a new landing zone near Space Launch Complex 40. In theory, the two side boosters could still perform a return to launch site maneuver and land on land. But there is another possibility that would even be more impressive. A dual drone ship landing. To maximize the rocket's performance and push that heavy Viasat satellite as far as possible, SpaceX might choose to land both side boosters on drone ships waiting out in the Atlantic. This is essentially the hard mode of rocket recovery. Landing a single booster on a moving target in the ocean is something most companies still can't do, and SpaceX doing it with two at the same time would be an unthinkable level of technical flex. It would require SpaceX to dedicate both of its east coast drone ships to a single mission, which would take them out of rotation for Falcon 9 launches for a few days. But the data and the performance gains would be massive. But the Viasat launch is just the opening act for a very busy couple of years. After that mission, the Falcon Heavy manifest is looking absolutely stacked. First on the list is Griffin Mission 1. This is a huge deal for NASA's commercial lunar payload services program, where Falcon Heavy will launch a lunar lander and an astrobotic payload toward the moon's south pole. This is only Astrobotic's second mission after their Peregrine flight back in 2024, and the stakes are incredibly high. They are looking for water ice in the permanently shadowed craters of the moon, which is basically the holy grail for future crewed bases. When sending something that important to the moon, you want the most reliable and powerful ride available. Falcon Heavy, with its 27 Merlin engines screaming at liftoff, is the perfect choice to ensure that lander gets the head start it needs. Speaking of Astrobotic, there are rumors that they might even try to squeeze in Griffin Mission 2 as early as the fourth quarter of this year, again using the Falcon Heavy. However, let's be real for a second. Space is hard, and most industry experts think that one will slip into 2027. Astrobotic is likely going to want to take a breather and look at the data from Mission 1 before they go throwing another lander at the lunar surface. But even if that slips, we still have the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to look forward to. This is NASA's next-generation infrared observatory, and it's an absolute unit of a spacecraft. We are talking about a primary mirror 2.4 meters across and a total length of 12 meters. This telescope is so important that NASA awarded SpaceX a $255 million U.S. dollar contract to ensure it gets home 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth safely. NASA really needs to stay on their toes with the schedule, though. There were some scary cost-cutting proposals last year that almost saw this telescope canceled. And while it was saved, the budget vultures are always circling. As the saying goes, NASA will have to protect the fruits of its years of investment. And the Falcon Heavy is the best insurance policy they have. Then we have the national security side of things. We are expecting the USSF-75 mission to launch sometime this year. And while the payload is top secret, probably something that would make James Bond jealous, it represents a major shift in how the U.S. government views SpaceX. For a long time, ULA held a near-monopoly on these sensitive military launches. But SpaceX has quietly been their worth, mission after mission, showing a level of flexibility and reliability that the legacy players just can't match. As a result, the Space Force has started choosing SpaceX for urgent missions that ULA simply couldn't handle because of their ongoing delays. This shift was officially confirmed in the numbers for the Phase 3 national security space launch contracts, where SpaceX secured a whopping 60% of the missions, leaving ULA with 40%. It's a complete reversal of the old guard, and the Falcon Heavy is a huge part of why that happened. And we haven't even mentioned the coolest mission on the horizon, Dragonfly. Scheduled for 2028, this mission will use a Falcon Heavy to send a literal robotic rotorcraft to Saturn's moon, Titan. That's basically a giant space drone that will hop from place to place on a moon with a thick atmosphere and organic chemistry. If that doesn't get you excited about the return of the Falcon Heavy, I don't know what will. It's a mission that requires immense precision and a massive amount of energy, and once again, the Heavy is the only vehicle that fits the bill. Now, compare all of this progress and reliability to SpaceX's main competitor, the ULA Vulcan. On paper, the Vulcan was supposed to be the rocket that finally gave ULA a way to compete with the Falcon family, but after years of slow, painful development, the Vulcan is currently struggling. Out of its first four missions, two have encountered significant problems, and the issues always seem to lead back to the solid rocket boosters strapped to the side. As of right now, the Vulcan is actually grounded while the Space Force and ULA investigate the latest anomaly, a delay that could last up to six months. This is a nightmare scenario for ULA, because their missions are piling up and their old reliable rocket, the Atlas V, is nearing its mandatory retirement. Soon, they won't have any rockets left to fly their customers' payloads, which is why we keep seeing these urgent government missions being transferred over to SpaceX. The problem with the Vulcan is that while it's technically a new rocket, it's built with a lot of outdated philosophy. It isn't reusable, it relies on solid boosters, which are basically giant sticks of dynamite that you can't turn off once you light them, and it depends on engines from Blue Origin. As Blue Origin starts flying their own New Glenn rockets more often, ULA is going to find it harder and harder to get the engines they need. It's a tough spot to be in, and it has led to rumors that ULA might eventually be sold off entirely. It turns out that it's really hard to compete with a company like SpaceX that builds, flies, and lands its own hardware at a fraction of the cost. Sometimes it feels like the Falcon 9 alone is enough to give ULA a headache, but when you add the Falcon Heavy back into the mix, and eventually Starship, the competition starts looking more like a landslide. After a relatively quiet period where it felt like the Falcon Heavy had retired to a nice beach in Florida, it's clear that the rocket is preparing for a remarkable comeback. Since that last mission in 2024, it's been waiting for the right moment to step back out. Not every mission needs a heavy lifter, but when you're talking about massive Viasat satellites, lunar landers, and infrared telescopes that can see the beginning of time, you don't send a boy to do a man's job. The return of the Falcon Heavy signals a promising new phase for SpaceX, one where heavy lift missions become a regular part of the schedule rather than a rare event. It offers the high payload capacity and proven reliability that the biggest players in the industry are desperate for. So for those of you who were worried that the Falcon Heavy might be removed from the fleet to make more room for Starship, you can breathe a sigh of relief. It'll soon be back and operating more actively than ever before. Are you excited to see those three cores light up the Florida coast again? If you are, go ahead and respond with FH in the comment section so I know you're ready for the roar. Then don't forget to like the video and subscribe to our channel or subscribe and then like, whichever way you prefer, to continue following and supporting everything we do here. Your support is what keeps us going as we track the incredible journey of SpaceX and the future of humanity in the stars. That brings us to the end of today's episode. I hope you enjoyed this deep dive into the return of the Falcon Heavy, the heavy lift king. Thank you so much for tuning in and spending your time with us. As always, this has been Kevin from GreatSpaceX and it's been an absolute pleasure bringing you the latest updates from the pad. Until next time, keep your eyes on the horizon and keep looking up.