![]() Artist’s concept of the Eutelsat 10B satellite with its antennas and solar arrays deployed in orbit. SpaceX still planned to retrieve the two halves of the Falcon 9 rocket’s payload fairing for refurbishment and reuse. That allowed the Falcon 9’s second stage engine to place the Eutelsat 10B satellite into a higher orbit than would have otherwise been possible. Instead of reserving some of its propellant for landing on a drone ship, the Falcon 9’s first stage booster burned its nine main engines a few seconds longer than usual, giving an extra burst of speed to the rocket’s upper stage. The target apogee for the Eutelsat 10B mission at spacecraft deployment was above 37,000 miles, or about 60,000 kilometers, according to Pascal Homsy, Eutelsat’s chief technical officer. The rocket aimed to release the spacecraft into a “super synchronous” transfer orbit with an apogee, or farthest point from Earth, well above Eutelsat 10B’s final operating altitude of 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers). But bad weather prevented liftoff of that flight from Kennedy Space Center, delaying the mission until Saturday.Įutelsat 10B deployed from the Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage about 35 minutes after launch. ![]() ![]() The launch company had an agreement with Eutelsat to dedicate all of the Falcon 9’s lift capability to sending the Eutelsat 10B satellite into as high of an orbit as possible, without reserving and propellant on the first stage for landing maneuvers.Ī few miles north of pad 40, SpaceX intended to launch a Falcon 9 rocket earlier Tuesday to begin a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. SpaceX did not attempt to recover the first stage of the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket. ![]() And SpaceX defied the odds Tuesday night after forecasters predicted a 90% chance of unacceptable weather conditions for launch. Eutelsat 10B is heading toward a perch in geostationary orbit to beam communications signals across a coverage zone from the North Atlantic to Asia, employing more than 100 spot beams to connect airline and cruise ship passengers, maritime crews, and other users on-the-go.Ī launch attempt Monday night was scrubbed a couple of hours before liftoff to “allow for additional pre-flight checkouts,” SpaceX said. EST Tuesday (0257 GMT Wednesday) from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The Eutelsat 10B satellite lifted off on top of a Falcon 9 rocket at 9:57 p.m. The mission completed a series of four major satellite launches for Eutelsat since early September. Stay tuned to witness this exciting event as SpaceX adds more satellites to its Starlink network and takes another step towards revolutionizing global internet connectivity.SpaceX’s oldest active Falcon 9 rocket booster, in service since 2018, made its final flight Tuesday night to deliver a Eutelsat broadband communications satellite into orbit on a mission to provide internet services to airplanes and ships across the North Atlantic, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. SpaceX will also provide a direct stream of the launch. Watching the launch live is possible through ’s coverage, which is expected to begin approximately five minutes before liftoff. This launch will contribute to SpaceX’s ongoing efforts to perfect its reusable launch system. The company has successfully landed and reused rocket boosters, significantly reducing the cost of space missions. SpaceX has been at the forefront of revolutionizing space travel. With the deployment of these additional satellites, SpaceX will continue to expand the network’s capabilities and reach. The Starlink satellite network aims to provide global broadband coverage, particularly in underserved areas. Additionally, the company has applied for approval to deploy an additional 30,000 satellites in the future. Starlink is SpaceX’s constellation of broadband satellites, currently comprised of 4,450 operational spacecraft in LEO.Īccording to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell, SpaceX has permission to launch a total of 12,000 Starlink satellites. The Falcon 9’s upper stage will then continue to deploy the 15 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO) about 15 minutes after launch. This will mark the 10th liftoff and landing for this particular booster. If all goes according to plan, the rocket’s first stage will make a vertical landing on the SpaceX droneship “Of Course I Still Love You” approximately 8.5 minutes after liftoff. EDT from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base. The launch is scheduled to take place at 12:40 a.m. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set to launch another batch of the company’s Starlink internet satellites to orbit in the early hours of Wednesday. ![]()
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