Falcon Heavy • Jupiter 3/EchoStar XXIV
July 28, 2023 at 11:04 p.m. EDT
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy launches EchoStar’s Hughes Network Systems' Jupiter 3/EchoStar XXIV satellite into a Geostationary Transfer Orbit from Florida's Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A.
Maxar Technologies built the 20,300-lb (9,200-kg) satellite. This is the heaviest communication satellite ever built and launched. It will enable nearly 80% of the people in the Americas to access Hughes's satellite internet service.
Eight and a half minutes after liftoff, the rocket's two side boosters landed at Landing Zones 1 and 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and due to the weight of the payload, the core booster was expended.
This marks the third of five Falcon Heavy missions scheduled for 2023 and the seventh launch since its debut in February 2018.