With a Thursday late morning liftoff, SpaceX despatched the newest satellite tv for pc within the radio broadcast fleet owned by SiriusXM on geostationary switch orbit trajectory.
The SXM-9 satellite tv for pc lifted off on a Falcon 9 rocket off from NASA’s Kennedy House Heart on the opening of the 90-minute launch window at 11:10 a.m. EST (1610 UTC).
The Falcon 9 first stage booster for this mission, tail quantity B1076 within the SpaceX fleet, launched for a nineteenth time. It beforehand supported the launches of CRS-26, Intelsat IS-40e, Ovzon 3 and 10 earlier Starlink missions.
Almost 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1076 touched down on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Simply Learn the Directions.’ This marked the a hundred and first booster touchdown on JRTI and the 379 booster touchdown so far.
Maxar Applied sciences (NSYE: MAXR) is as soon as once more the satellite tv for pc producer behind the SXM-9 satellite tv for pc. The corporate has constructed satellites for SiriusXM (NASDAQ: SIRI) going again to 2000 when it manufactured the first-generation Sirius satellites.
SXM-9 is constructed on Maxar’s1300 sequence bus as a part of a deal that was introduced by Maxar again in August 2021.
“Maxar’s 1300-class platform has served as a dependable spacecraft platform for many years, and we’re glad to see SiriusXM will depend on its efficiency as soon as once more,” mentioned Robert Curbeam, Maxar Senior Vice President of House Seize, in a 2021 assertion. “We’re trying ahead to persevering with our decades-long relationship with SiriusXM.”
This was the second satellite tv for pc launched for SiriusXM for the reason that on-orbit failure of SXM-7, which launched again in December 2020. The roughly 8.2-meter-tall (27 ft), 7,000 kg (15,432 lb) SXM-8 launched in June 2021 and accomplished on-orbit testing a month later.
SXM-9 has the identical dimensions and incorporates a 9 m (29.5 ft) diameter unfurl in a position reflector antenna, which was manufactured by L3Harris Applied sciences. L3Harris was additionally tapped so as to add its antenna to the forthcoming SXM-10 satellite tv for pc as nicely.
