SpaceX launched a Swedish broadband satellite tonight (Jan. 3) on the company’s second mission of 2024.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Ovzon 3 satellite lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station tonight at 6:04 p.m. EST (2304 GMT).
The Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth tonight as planned, touching down back at Cape Canaveral about eight minutes after liftoff. It was the 10th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description.
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The Falcon 9’s upper stage, meanwhile, continued carrying Ovzon 3 skyward. It deployed the spacecraft in geosynchronous transfer orbit about 38.5 minutes after launch as planned, SpaceX announced in a post on X.
Ovzon 3 is “the first privately funded and developed Swedish geostationary satellite,” EverydayAstronaut.com wrote. “It is a communications satellite which will cover 1/3 of the Earth via its steerable spot beams, meeting the demand for better mobile broadband coverage in under-served regions.”
Geostationary orbit lies about 22,200 miles (35,700 kilometers) above Earth. At this altitude, orbital speed matches our planet’s rotational speed, allowing satellites to “hover” over the same patch of ground continuously.
Tonight’s launch was the second of 2024 for SpaceX. The company lofted 21 of its Starlink internet satellites, including the first six “direct to cell” spacecraft, yesterday (Jan. 2) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
There will be many more liftoffs to come: SpaceX representatives have said the company aims to launch 144 orbital missions this year. That would smash the SpaceX record of 96, which was set in 2023.
