CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — After two delays this week, SpaceX saw a successful launch of a European broadcast satellite Thursday evening.

What You Need To Know

  • The launch took place from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

  • The SES company's ASTRA 1P will provide TV channels to parts of Europe

The mission was set to launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Poor weather conditions this past Tuesday and Wednesday forced SpaceX to scrub the launch twice.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is carrying SES's ASTRA 1P satellite to geosynchronous transfer orbit, the company stated.  

Going up

This marked Falcon 9's first-stage booster B1080’s ninth mission. The eight missions it completed previously are quite impressive, including two crewed assignments.

  1. ESA’s Euclid telescope
  2. Ax-2 crew mission
  3. Starlink 6-11 mission
  4. Starlink 6-24 mission
  5. Ax-3 crew mission
  6. CRS-30 mission
  7. Starlink 6-52 mission
  8. Starlink 6-62 mission

After the stage separation, the first-stage rocket landed on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean.

About the mission

SES, a Luxembourg-based telecommunications company, stated the ASTRA 1P is a wide-beam satellite that will provide private and public broadcasters across Germany, France and Spain with satellite TV channels.

“ASTRA 1Q, a next-generation digital satellite with both wide beams and high-throughput spot beams, will be able to support direct-to-home … operations like ASTRA 1P,” stated SES in a 2021 press release.

The Ku-band satellite will find a geostationary home at 19.2 degrees East.

SES contracted Thales Alenia Space to build the ASTRA 1P and another satellite, the ASTRA 1Q.

-

Facebook Twitter