SpaceX will launch its first Falcon 9 rocket of 2025 right now, if all goes in accordance with plan.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is ready to take off on Friday (Jan. 3) at 8:27 p.m. EST (0127 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The flight will launch the Thuraya 4 spacecraft to geosynchronous orbit on behalf of Space42, a satellite tv for pc and area providers firm based mostly within the United Arab Emirates. The satellite tv for pc will present cell communications providers all through Europe, the Middle East and Africa for each business and authorities prospects.
You can watch the launch reside at SpaceX.com or by way of the corporate’s X account. Coverage ought to begin round 8:20 p.m. ET (0120 GMT).
This would be the twentieth flight for this Falcon 9 first stage booster. After lofting the satellite tv for pc to orbit, the booster will return to Earth for a touchdown aboard SpaceX’s droneship named “A Shortfall of Gravitas,” which can be ready offshore close by within the Atlantic Ocean.
The first stage booster launching right now’s mission beforehand launched the ill-fated ispace Haukto-R moon lander to the lunar floor, an ISS resupply mission in addition to 13 batches of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites.
The Thuraya 4 mission will mark SpaceX’s 418th flight of a Falcon 9 rocket, and the corporate’s 435th mission total. SpaceX launched greater than 130 orbital missions in 2024, and this yr’s complete is predicted to be even greater.
The satellite tv for pc on right now’s flight is thought extra formally because the Thuraya 4-NGS (Next Generation System) and was constructed by Airbus. The applied sciences aboard the satellite tv for pc will “unlock modern AI-powered providers,” Ali Al Hashemi, CEO of Yahsat Space Services, one of many two corporations that type Space42, mentioned in an announcement.
