SpaceX stages successful launch of Jupiter 3 satellite after 2 earlier scrubs

July 29 (UPI) -- SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon Heavy rocket and EchoStar's enormous Jupiter 3 satellite late Friday following two earlier scrubbed attempts.

The liftoff came at 11:04 p.m. EDT after it had been pushed back twice, including the first scrub on Wednesday with about a minute left in the countdown.

"Falcon Heavy launches SpaceX's 250th successful mission overall!" the SpaceX team said in a celebratory tweet posted early Saturday after the rocket, carrying the school bus-sized communications satellite into low-Earth orbit, climbed away from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The Falcon Heavy's twin side boosters separated from the center core booster several minutes into the flight and successfully landed on landing zones at the Space Force Station.

Friday's mission marked the third launch and landing of such Falcon Heavy side boosters, which previously supported SpaceX's USSF-44 and USSF-67 flights.

Successful deployment of the Jupiter 3 satellite, produced by Hughes Communications, was confirmed about 3 1/2 hours after the launch.

The $90 million Jupiter 3 is reportedly the largest commercial communications satellite ever constructed and has the wingspan of a commercial airliner following its deployment. It weighs more than 9 metric tons, according to its manufacturer, Maxar Technologies.

It will operate from a station-keeping slot as a relay station. Also called EchoStar XXIV, the Hughes satellite provide a 500-gigabit-per-second Internet transmission capacity throughout the Americas.

The company says the the powerful communications satellite will support in-flight wi-fi, maritime connections, enterprise networks, backhaul for mobile network operators and support community wi-fi solutions in addition to providing satellite Internet connectivity across North and South America.