Heavy commercial communications satellite launch reset for Thursday evening [Updated]

Enlarge / SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket stands on Launch Complex 39A at the center NASA's Kennedy spacecraft before the launch of the Jupiter 3 communications satellite. Trevor Mahlmann/Ars Technica

Update Thursday 12:30 p.m. EDT: SpaceX has canceled the first attempt to launch the Falcon Heavy rocket and will try again Thursday evening.

The heaviest commercial communications satellite ever built is packed onto a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket for launch Thursday evening from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

This satellite, owned by EchoStar and built by Maxar, tips the scales at about 9.2 metric tons, or more than 20,000 pounds. SpaceX's Falcon Heavy will propel the spacecraft to an operational position in geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) above the equator.

SpaceX canceled the launch attempt Wednesday night with about a minute remaining in the countdown due to an "abortion criteria violation." Florida teams are now gearing up for another countdown on Thursday night.

The action will start at 11:04 p.m. EDT (03:04 UTC) with the ignition of Falcon Heavy's 27 main engines at Launch Complex 39A. Moments later, the Falcon Heavy will pull away from its launch pad and head east from Kennedy Space Center. You can watch SpaceX's live webcast below.

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EchoStar's subsidiary, Hughes Network Systems, will put the satellite, named Jupiter 3, into service to deliver internet across the Americas, from Canada to Argentina.

Jupiter 3 will claim the crown as heavyweight champion of commercial communications satellites. This is at least two tons more than any such satellite that has been launched before. The spacecraft is also the most massive payload ever carried by a Falcon Heavy, still the world's most powerful commercial launch vehicle in operational service.

"It's big," said Mark Wymer, senior vice president at Hughes Network Systems. "The satellite from end to end is about 10 stories tall, so it's a monster. It weighs about 9 tons (metric), which is why we need the SpaceX Falcon Heavy to get it up the what largely determines the size and scale of this is that we know there's a huge thirst for data, and we knew we had to put a good chunk of bandwidth in the sky ."

The Jupiter 3 satellite, sometimes referred to as EchoStar 24, will provide up to 500 gigabits per second of total capacity, delivering Internet signals to rural homes, businesses, airline passengers, and government and military users.

"When you think about what it takes to support a 500 gigabit throughput satellite, in terms of power and solar panels, etc., that's what determines its size, scale and range," Wymer told Ars in an interview ahead of Wednesday night's launch.

These are the mission types suitable for SpaceX's Falcon Heavy. A satellite that heavy couldn't launch into the same orbit on a Falcon 9 rocket, even if SpaceX spent the first stage. The Falcon Heavy combines three Falcon 9 boosters to triple the rocket's take-off power.

During Thursday night's mission, SpaceX will return the two side thrusters to landings at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, a few miles south of the Falcon Heavy's launch pad. The central core thruster will burn off all of its liquid propellant to give its payload as much speed as possible before shutting down and re-entering the atmosphere to crash into the Atlantic Ocean.

The twin side boosters, both reused from previous missions, will detach from the center stage approximately two and a half minutes after liftoff. These boosters will turn around to fly tail-first, then re-ignite their engines to reverse and return to the Florida coast. Descending vertically, the side thrusters will return to their landing zones just after eight minutes of the mission, accompanied by the clatter of sonic booms.

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