UPDATED 8:27 PM ET Apr. 30, 2023 PUBLISHED 2:42 PM ET Apr. 26, 2023 PUBLISHED 2:42 PM EDT Apr. 26, 2023 SHARE KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — From weather delays and lightning striking the launch pad, SpaceX finally launched the Falcon Heavy rocket for the ViaSat-3 Americas mission on Sunday night. What You Need To Know Officials say weather concerns prompted the company to push the launch several times ViaSat-3 Americas’, Astranis’ and Gravity Space’s satellites are onboard the Falcon Heavy 🔻Scroll down to watch the launch🔻 — SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 1, 2023 About the launch The Falcon Heavy rocket, which houses communication satellites from the ViaSat company and two other companies, took off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 8:26 p.m. EDT. SpaceX officials said the boosters for this mission have been around the block. “One of the side boosters on this mission previously supported Arabsat-6A, STP-2, COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation FM2, KPLO, and three Starlink missions, and the second previously supported launch of Arabsat-6A and STP-2,” stated SpaceX. SpaceX will not attempt to collect or land the boosters for this mission and will simply fall into the Atlantic Ocean. In fact, there will not be any landing legs on the first-stage boosters of the rocket. A series of delays Originally, the mission was scheduled to go up on Tuesday, April 18, but it was pushed back to Wednesday, April 26, then again on Thursday due to severe weather. The next attempt was on Friday, but at T-59 seconds during the countdown of its Falcon Heavy launch for the ViaSat-3 Americas mission, SpaceX aborted the launch. No reason was given for the abort. During a live teleconference of the launch, a SpaceX official said that both the rocket and its payload are “healthy.” The countdown clock stopped at T-59 seconds before the 8:26 p.m. EDT launch and then was reset to 15 minutes before SpaceX stated it was aborting the mission. SpaceX was hoping to try again on Saturday. But then early Saturday, it determined that weather conditions were not favorable for a launch at that time either, and SpaceX stated it would try again Sunday. Ground winds pushed Sunday’s launch from 7:29 p.m. EDT to 8:26 p.m. EDT. On Thursday night, lightning struck the tower Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center where SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket was stationed. (SpaceX)