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SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket, which carried a huge radio SirusXM satellite into orbit on Sunday, Dec. 13.
This marks the 25th launch of the year for the company and its seventh trip to space for the rocket, according to Amy Thompson of Space.com.
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The Falcon 9 launched from the newly renamed Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Approximately 10 minutes after liftoff, SpaceX posted a tweet stating the rocket’s first-stage booster landed on the SpaceX drone ship “Just Read The Instructions” in the Atlantic Ocean, according to Thompson.
The mission was originally slated for launch on Friday, Dec. 11, but was scrubbed after needing additional ground system checks, according to Thompson.
The Falcon 9 carried an updated version of the SiriusXM-7 (SXM-7) satellite into space for Sirius customers.
“SXM-7 is one of two satellites to replace the aging XM-3 and XM-4 crafts that were launched in 2005 and 2006, respectively,” according to Lee Kanayama & Trevor Sesnic with NASA Spaceflight.
“The two satellites will operate in the S-band spectrum, and both satellites will have a massive unfurlable antenna reflector. This antenna will enable broadcast to radios without the need for a sizable dish-type antenna on the ground,” said the NASA Spaceflight authors.
In a year full of unprecedented events, 2020 has been a victory for space exploration and astronomic sightings.
