A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch on its record-tying 14th mission Saturday (Nov. 12), and you may watch the motion stay.
SpaceX is scheduled to launch Intelsat’s Galaxy 31 and Galaxy 32 satellites aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on Saturday from Florida’s Cape Canaveral House Power Station throughout a two-hour window that opens at 11:06 a.m. EST (1606 GMT). You’ll be able to watch stay right here at House.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or straight through the corporate (opens in new tab).
It will likely be the 14th liftoff for this Falcon 9’s first stage, tying a SpaceX document. The booster additionally helped loft Demo-2, SpaceX’s first-ever astronaut flight, in Could 2020; the RADARSAT Constellation Mission; the SXM-7 spacecraft for SiriusXM; and 10 huge batches of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, the corporate wrote in a mission description (opens in new tab).
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This can apparently be the booster’s closing flight, nevertheless; SpaceX’s mission description says nothing in regards to the rocket coming again to Earth for a protected touchdown.
If all goes in keeping with plan, Galaxy 31 and Galaxy 32 can be deployed into geosynchronous switch orbit about 33 minutes and 38 minutes after liftoff, respectively. The duo will assist Intelsat refresh its communications fleet, the corporate mentioned on its web site (opens in new tab). The high-speed satellites symbolize a “new technology of know-how” for purchasers that largely embody tv broadcasters, Intelsat officers acknowledged.
Galaxy 31 and Galaxy 32 will change older North American-focused satellites in geosynchronous orbit, that means they may stay constantly above one space of Earth.
This would be the second Intelsat launch in a month for SpaceX, which lofted the Galaxy 33 and Galaxy 34 satellites utilizing a Falcon 9 rocket on Oct. 8. (That was the 14th mission for that Falcon 9’s first stage as properly, by the best way.)
On the time, Intelsat officers mentioned the 2 Galaxy satellites will present recent capabilities in C-band, a radio frequency vary that Galaxy 31 and 32 will even use.
Saturday’s launch would be the 52nd total for SpaceX in 2022, including to the corporate’s rising single-year document (which had been 31, set in 2021). The approaching mission will even be the forty eighth flight utilizing a beforehand flown Falcon 9 rocket this yr.
The overwhelming majority of SpaceX launches this yr have served to develop the corporate’s huge Starlink satellite-internet constellation. However SpaceX has additionally launched different firms’ satellites to orbit, in addition to cargo and crew missions to the Worldwide House Station with Falcon 9s in 2022.
As well as, the SpaceX flew its Falcon Heavy on Nov. 1. The mission, which lofted payloads for the U.S. House Power, was the primary flight of the highly effective rocket since June 2019.
Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of “Why Am I Taller (opens in new tab)?” (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a guide about area medication. Observe her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Fb (opens in new tab).
