SpaceX launching powerful Falcon Heavy rocket for 1st time in 18 months on April 27: Watch it live

Watch Live! SpaceX's Falcon Heavy launches for the first time since 2024 - YouTube Watch On SpaceX's brawny Falcon Heavy rocket is about to fly for the first time in a year and a half, and you can watch the action live. A Falcon Heavy topped with the huge ViaSat-3 F3 communications satellite will launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday (April 27), during an 85-minute window that opens at 10:21 a.m. EDT (1421 GMT). You can watch the liftoff live here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX , or directly via the company. Coverage will begin about 15 minutes before launch. SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket launches NASA's Europa Clipper mission from Florida on Oct. 14, 2024. (Image credit: SpaceX) Falcon Heavy employs three modified, strapped-together first stages of SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket. The central booster hosts an upper stage, which is integrated with the payload. Together, these three boosters generate about 5.1 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, making Falcon Heavy the second-most-powerful launcher in operation today. The leader is NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) moon rocket, which generates 8.8 million pounds. (SpaceX's Starship creates a whopping 16.7 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, but it's still in development.) Falcon Heavy debuted in February 2018 with a test flight that launched SpaceX founder Elon Musk 's cherry-red Tesla Roadster into orbit around the sun . The rocket has since flown 10 more missions, every one of them successful. …