SpaceX launches Falcon Heavy rocket carrying powerful satellite

Space SpaceX launches high-power ViaSat internet satellite in rare flight of Falcon Heavy rocket By William Harwood William Harwood CBS News Space Consultant Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News. Read Full Bio William Harwood April 29, 2026 / 11:51 AM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google A triple-core SpaceX Falcon Heavy, the company's most powerful operational rocket, blasted off from Florida Wednesday, boosting a ViaSat internet satellite into space, the company's third in a globe-spanning fleet of high-speed broadband relay stations.Along with putting the ViaSat-3 satellite into its planned preliminary orbit, the rocket's two side boosters, heralded by competing sonic booms, executed on-target touchdowns on separate pads at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station after boosting the vehicle out of the dense lower atmosphere. SpaceX launched its 12th Falcon Heavy rocket Wednesday, using its most powerful operational booster to put a state-of-the-art ViaSat internet satellite into orbit. William Harwood/CBS News It was the 12th flight of a Falcon Heavy rocket since the booster's maiden launch in 2018 and the first since October 2024 when SpaceX sent NASA's Europa probe on the way to Jupiter. As expected, the heavy-lift rocket once again put on a spectacular show for area residents and tourists along Florida's Space Coast.Powered by 27 Merlin engines in three strapped-together Falcon 9 first stage boosters, the Falcon Heavy roared to life at 10:13 a.m. EDT and majestically climbed away from historic pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.Two minutes and 25 seconds after liftoff, the Heavy's two side boosters, both veterans of earlier flights, peeled away and headed back to the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for landing while the central core stage continued the climb to space.A minute-and-a-half later, the core stage, making...