SpaceX Falcon Heavy is Launching TODAY: Wake Up after 1,5 Years is Beyond You Expected…

The Falcon Heavy is back, and it's like that older sibling who went away to college for a year and a half and suddenly showed up at the front door, ready to party. It's been a long wait, but the return of the world's most powerful operational rocket is finally here, and there's so much to unpack about this mission. While we're looking at the heavy lift actions in the east, do not think for a second that Starbase has gone quiet. The teams in South Texas are still moving steel at a pace that would make a construction foreman weep, and the launch pads are seeing some massive changes that suggest something truly crazy is on the horizon. And to top it all off, we have a very special birthday to celebrate for a friend who has spent 36 years giving us the best seat in the house for the secrets of the universe. So let's delve into all of these updates on today's episode of Great SpaceX. The mission is set for 10.21 a.m. Eastern on April 27th, and the launch window is a SpaceX has been teasing us with some incredible footage of the Falcon being rolled out and going through the vertical stacking process. It's a sight that never gets old, but it feels particularly special this time because it's been over a year and a half since we last saw those three boosters standing together in the Florida sunshine. To put that in perspective, the last time a Falcon Heavy roared off the pads, Starship was still in its V1 phase. We have literally watched an entire generation of Starship development in the V2 era come and go without a single Falcon Heavy launch. It's a bit of a disappointment for those of us who love this heavy launch vehicle, seeing it sit on the sidelines while its younger, shinier siblings got all the attention. But the wait is over, and the King's back to reclaim the throne. This mission is launching the Viasat 3 F3 satellite for Viasat. This is a massive piece of the global connectivity puzzle and a huge milestone for the customer. Back in May of 2023, the Falcon Heavy launched the first Viasat 3 to provide service to the Americas. Then we had the F2 launch in November of 2025, which covered the Middle East. Now, with the F3 satellite, we're looking at a significant expansion into the Asia-Pacific region. This mission is critical for Viasat, and it's equally important for the Falcon Heavy to prove it's still the go-to muscle for these high-energy orbits. The choreography of a Falcon Heavy launch is like a high-tech ballet, and it starts long before the engines actually fire. About an hour and 30 minutes before liftoff, the refueling process begins, and it follows a very specific order that highlights just how finicky rocket science can be. They start with the RP-1, which is basically highly refined kerosene in the first stage. Then, around T-45 minutes, they start loading the liquid oxygen, or LOX. Now, LOX is the picky toddler of the rocket world. It has to be kept at incredibly cold temperatures to remain a liquid, so they load it after the kerosene to prevent it from sitting around too long, evaporating, and turning back into gas. If you load it too early, you're basically throwing money and fuel into the atmosphere. The very last thing to get filled is the RP-1 for the upper stage. This is partly because the upper stage is way up there and harder to reach, but also because that fuel is not used until much later in the flight. This specific sequence helps ensure a safe process and makes it easier for the support team to handle any emergencies that might pop up at the last second. While all that fuel is being pumped in, the engines are going through an engine chill. This is about bringing the temperature of the engines into sync with the supercooled fuel. If you dump liquid oxygen at minus 300 degrees into a room temperature engine, the thermal shock could be catastrophic. By T-3 minutes, the fuel is mostly in and the onboard computers take over the final checks. The launch director gives the go command, and at T-5 seconds, the ignition process begins. It starts with the side boosters, followed by the center core. When all 27 Merlin engines are screaming at full power, they generate up to 5 million pounds of thrust, which is over 2,200 tons of raw power pushing against gravity. The flight itself is going to be impressive. About 40 seconds after liftoff, the rocket reaches max Q, the point where the atmospheric pressure is trying its hardest to crush the vehicle. Then comes the part that everyone loves, the separation. The two side boosters peel away from the core, a skill that few other organizations in the world have mastered. But what SpaceX does next is truly special. While others discard their boosters, SpaceX lands and reuses them. For this mission, we expect to see the boosters returning to landing zone 2 and the zone near SLC-40. It's a bit of a regretful moment, though, because we probably will not see a simultaneous dual landing on a drone ship ever again. SpaceX recently announced that the JRTI, or Just Read the Instructions, drone ship has stopped supporting Falcon landings to focus entirely on Starship. With only one drone ship left on the East Coast, the days of the triple drone ship dream are likely behind us. Still, seeing those boosters touch down on land, even 8-10 miles apart, is a testament to SpaceX's incredible landing control capabilities. As the side boosters head home, the core stage continues its journey alone, pushing higher into the atmosphere. Usually, the core stage is not planned for a landing. It'll be expendable, self-igniting, and falling into the ocean after its job is done. The core booster will separate from the second stage around 8-9 minutes into the flight. Then, the second stage takes over, climbing into the vacuum of space. Once it passes the thickest part of the atmosphere, the fairing will open up like a giant clamshell, and after a few dozen minutes of flight, the upper stage will deploy the Viasat-3 satellite into its final geostationary orbit. This mission will mark the return of a giant, adding another thrilling chapter to the incredible two-decade development history of the Falcon family. And it's just the beginning of an explosive next phase. In the near future, Falcon Heavy is set to launch the Griffon-1 lander to the moon, and it's gearing up to carry NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in the coming years. Looking further ahead into the decade, this heavy hitter, or should I say, heavy lifter, is set to carry the Dragonfly rotorcraft to Saturn's moon Titan and help launch the Rosalind Franklin rover to Mars. If you're looking forward to this epic lineup of missions, or if you were impressed by the launch, drop a, here we go, in the comments. And don't forget to Now, while Florida is busy with the Falcon, Starbase in South Texas is still a whirlwind of activity. Work is underway on multiple systems simultaneously. We've not seen a lot of new footage of the Flight 12 hardware lately, which includes S-39 and B-19, suggesting they are in the middle of deep internal checks and assembly. However, there might be some bad news on the horizon. Rumors are circulating that there might be issues with B-19's static fire test, and a second attempt might be needed. This could cast a bit of doubt on that May launch window for Flight 14. We're keeping a close eye on this and will have more details in an upcoming episode, so stay tuned. On the production side, things are moving along quite well. Early on the 26th, the final section of B-20 arrived at Megabay 1, marking the completion of the B-20 production process. This is the kind of factory line efficiency that makes the Starship program so unique. Once B-19 finishes its work, B-20 will be right behind it, ready for testing. We might see B-19 roll out for cryogenic testing at Massey's very soon, especially since the Meanwhile, S-40 is looking ready after its aft sections and flaps were installed back in March. But the real star of the show right now is S-41. The first parts of this ship have appeared, and it's expected to be the historic first vehicle to be caught by the Mechazilla arms. At the launch site, preparations are reaching a frenzy. The ship quick disconnect is being tested constantly because it has to support much more powerful flight than anything we've seen before. The upgrades to Pad 2 compared to the arm on Pad 1 are being put to the test. Below the launch pad, significant changes are happening in the fuel tank area. Since the end of the 24th, large fuel tanks have been lifted and moved toward the port of Brownsville. By April 26th, the 6th tank had been moved. This could be for a few reasons. SpaceX might be sending these tanks to Florida to help build up the infrastructure there, or they might be preparing to upgrade the storage at Starbase with even larger tankers or more powerful pumps. We already saw them load fuel into B-19 in a record-breaking 35 minutes, so if they're aiming for even more power, we're about to witness something truly insane. Finally, we have to talk about the Hubble Space Telescope's 36th birthday photo. On Friday, April 24th, Hubble officially turned 36, and to celebrate, the spatial intelligence company, Vantor, published a stunning close-up shot of the telescope. This photo was taken just the day before by one of its WorldView Legion satellites. In a post on Axe, Vantor wrote, Celebrating 36 years of discovery with the Hubble Space Telescope. For over three decades, Hubble has expanded our understanding of the universe, delivering breathtaking imagery and groundbreaking science that continue to inspire. Proud to support the technologies and teams that make moments like this possible. The photo was captured from just 34.8 miles away, which in space terms is basically like standing right next to it. The post says that it provides an incredible perspective of one of humanity's most iconic scientific instruments. With a space sample distance of 4 centimeters or 1.6 inches, Hubble's signature cylindrical body, gleaming thermal shielding, and extended solar arrays are clearly visible, along with the open aperture door at the front of the telescope. It's a perspective we rarely get to see, and it's a beautiful tribute to one of humanity's most iconic scientific tools. Vantor, which many of you might remember as Maxar Intelligence, operates six of these WorldView Legion satellites. They orbit at an altitude of about 322 miles, and they are so sharp, they can resolve features as small as 11.8 inches on the surface of the earth. This specific shot was taken by WorldView Legion 4, which actually reached orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket back in August of 2024. It's a great example of how these systems are all interconnected. SpaceX launches the satellites that take the pictures of the telescopes that SpaceX might one day go up and service. Hubble's journey has been nothing short of magical. It launched in 1990 with a flawed mirror, a mistake that could have ended the mission before it really began. But astronauts went up there in 1993 and fixed it, and it's been capturing breathtaking imagery ever since. Even though it's showing some signs of its advanced age, and believe me, so am I, NASA is optimistic that it can keep making discoveries through 2035. Hubble is a symbol of our curiosity, the eyes of humanity looking out into the great unknown. Let us show our appreciation with some birthday wishes in the comments and wait to see what else it reveals in the years to come. That brings us to the end of today's episode. It's a busy time to be a space fan with the return of the Falcon Heavy, the mystery of the Starbase fuel tanks, and the continued legacy of the Hubble telescope. We can't forget what Musk said about the future scale of these missions in his recent tweet, which is, Starship V4 tanker version will deliver more than 200 tons of propellant per flight, so more like five or six tanker flights to refill the Lunar Transit Starship in orbit. Shouldn't be too much of a problem if we're doing more than 10,000 flights per year. If we actually reach that volume, the 10,000 ships per year he mentioned by saying, yes, at massive volume, maybe as high as 10,000 ships per year, we are looking at an entirely different civilization. Thank you so much for tuning in. As always, this has been Kevin from GreatSpaceX. Until next time, keep looking up!