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Cape Canaveral, Florida — SpaceX called off Monday’s scheduled liftoff of a Falcon Heavy rocket carrying the final ViaSat-3 broadband satellite, scrubbing the mission in the final minute because of unfavorable weather conditions at Kennedy Space Center.

The powerful rocket, making its first flight in 18 months, had been targeted for a 10:21 a.m. ET liftoff from Launch Complex 39A today. Propellant loading was underway, and the countdown progressed until approximately T-28 seconds, when launch controllers halted the attempt.The 45th Weather Squadron had forecasted a 70% chance of favorable conditions, citing potential issues with cumulus clouds and surface electric fields associated with a Carolina Low and an approaching sea breeze. Weather ultimately violated launch safety rules.

SpaceX confirmed that the vehicle and payload remain healthy. A new target date will be announced, with a backup 85-minute window available for Tuesday, April 28, opening at 10:17 a.m. ET. Forecasters give Tuesday a significantly higher 90% probability of acceptable weather.The mission, designated ViaSat-3 F3 (also referred to as ViaSat-3 Asia-Pacific), will deliver a large Ka-band communications satellite to geosynchronous transfer orbit. Once operational, it will expand Viasat’s global broadband network, focusing on coverage across the Asia-Pacific region.

This will mark the 12th flight of the Falcon Heavy, a variant of SpaceX’s workhorse booster that uses three Falcon 9 first-stage cores. For this launch, the two side boosters are slated to return for landings at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zones 2 and 40 roughly eight minutes after liftoff, while the center core will be expended into the Atlantic Ocean. The upper stage is expected to deploy the satellite approximately five hours into the flight.

The scrub comes as SpaceX ramps up heavy-lift operations following the previous Falcon Heavy mission in October 2024, which sent NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft toward Jupiter.

SpaceX and NASA teams will review data and weather forecasts before committing to the next attempt.

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