The original O3b satellites, built by Thales Alenia Space nearly a decade ago, had 10 user beams per spacecraft. 3 and 4 in the fleet, stacked in launch configuration before encapsulation inside SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket payload fairing. O3b stands for “Other 3 Billion” in recognition of the billions of people without access to reliable internet service. The first two O3b mPOWER satellites launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in December. The new O3b mPOWER satellites will operate in a similar Medium Earth Orbit, or MEO, as the original O3b satellites. They flew to space on Russian Soyuz rockets under a launch services contract with Arianepace. SES already has 20 O3b first-generation satellites in Medium Earth Orbit. The satellites will use electric propulsion to reach their final circular operating orbits over the equator at an altitude of about 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers). The Falcon 9’s upper stage fired its single engine three times to propel the O3b mPOWER satellites into an elliptical transfer orbit ranging more than 4,300 miles (nearly 7,000 kilometers) above Earth, at an inclination of around 10 degrees to the equator. The Falcon 9’s first stage booster landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean about nine minutes after liftoff on the O3b mission Friday. The two O3b spacecraft on the Falcon 9 rocket, when combined, weigh roughly 9,000 pounds (4,100 kilograms) in launch configuration, according to Boeing. Airplanes, cruise ships, energy companies, research institutions, and remote communities can remain connected using the O3b network. The O3b mPOWER satellites that lifted off on the Falcon 9 rocket from pad 40 will beam high-speed internet services around the world, providing “fiber-like” connectivity to users between 50 degrees north and south latitude, according to SES, the Luxembourg-based operator that owns the O3b fleet. In the background, a Falcon Heavy stands on pad 39A for liftoff on the ViaSat 3 Americas mission. A Falcon 9 rocket (left) stands on pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for liftoff with two O3b mPOWER internet satellites. Separate SpaceX launch teams watched over the nearly simultaneous countdowns for the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy Friday night. SpaceX said late Friday night that the Falcon Heavy’s next launch attempt will be Sunday. The last-minute hold eliminated any chance for SpaceX to launch back-to-back rockets Friday night, an event that would have marked the shortest span between two SpaceX missions in the company’s history, and the most rapid turnaround between two orbital-class launches from Cape Canaveral since 1966. In the end, the Falcon Heavy countdown aborted about a minute before liftoff for reasons SpaceX did not explain during their launch broadcast Friday night. The Falcon Heavy launch was previously scheduled for Thursday evening, but SpaceX delayed the flight 24 hours due to severe weather impacting Florida’s Space Coast. Three-and-a-half miles to the north, SpaceX readied a Falcon Heavy rocket - created by combining three Falcon 9 first stage boosters - for a ride to a high-altitude orbit more than 20,000 miles (about 35,000 kilometers) over the equator with the ViaSat 3 Americas broadband satellite, also made by Boeing.įorecasters predicted iffy weather Friday evening for both launches, but the SpaceX took advantage of a favorable trend in weather conditions to get the Falcon 9 off the ground on the O3b mPOWER mission Friday evening. EDT (2212 UTC) sent the the second pair of Boeing-built satellites into space for SES’s O3b mPOWER network, a constellation of equatorial orbiting internet relay platforms for telecom operators and mobile connectivity services. The Falcon 9 rocket launch from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral at 6:12 p.m. Follow us on Twitter.Ī SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off with a pair of O3b internet satellites for SES Friday evening from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, but a last-minute abort for a Falcon Heavy mission later in the night prevented the company from pulling off a launch doubleheader. SpaceX also attempted to launch a Falcon Heavy rocket later in the night, but the countdown aborted in the final minute before liftoff. Watch a replay of our live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Falcon 9 rocket with two O3b mPOWER internet satellites Friday, April 28.
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