SpaceX launched two satellites for Luxembourgish satellite company SES today aboard a Falcon 9. Liftoff was at 5:26 PM EST (22:26 UTC) from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and into unsettled skies with storms lingering in the Space Coast region.
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
SpaceX chose to delay a liftoff attempt until the end of the launch window that opened at 3:59 PM EST and closed again at 5:26 PM, probably because of showers, potential lightning and/or cumulus clouds in the area.
Around 8.5 minutes after liftoff, Booster B1090 earned its first soot when it completed its first mission successfully by touching down safely offshore on ASDS ‘Just Read The Instructions’ offshore in the Atlantic. JRTI and B1090 will return to Port Canaveral, where B1090 will be offloaded and returned to Hangar X for preparation for its next flight.
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
Payload
O3b mPower 7 & 8 are two telecommunications satellites in a planned constellation of eleven when completed. The pair were built by Boeing, and are operated by SES, a company headquarted in Luxembourg.
According to SES, “O3b mPOWER is SES’s second-generation medium earth orbit (MEO) system located 8,000km above Earth. To date, SES has launched six out of 13 O3b mPOWER high-throughput and low-latency satellites and has built an extensive ground infrastructure around the world. The system started providing global connectivity services in April 2024.”
Graphic: SES
Launch Replay
Next Launch
- Date: NET December 20, 2024
- Organization: SpaceX
- Mission: 4x Astranis MicroGEO
- Rocket: Falcon 9
- Launch Site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
- Launch Window: 10:39 PM – 2:58 AM EST
- Payload: Telecommunications satellites
Author: Charles Boyer
NASA kid from Cocoa Beach, FL, born of Project Apollo parents and family. I’m a writer and photographer sharing the story of spaceflight from the Eastern Range here in Florida.
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