On Sunday, December 13 at 12:30 p.m. EST, Falcon 9 launched the SXM-7 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida – SpaceX’s 25th mission in 2020.
This mission marked the seventh flight of this Falcon 9 first stage rocket booster, which previously supported launch of Crew Dragon’s first flight to the International Space Station (Demo-1), launch of the RADARSAT Constellation Mission, and four Starlink missions in 2020. Following stage separation, SpaceX landed Falcon 9’s first stage on the “Just Read the Instructions” droneship, which was located in the Atlantic Ocean. One half of Falcon 9’s fairing previously supported the ANASIS-II mission in July 2020.
The SpaceX team successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket from Florida Sunday after Friday’s launch was scrubbed with 30 seconds left in the countdown due to high winds.
The launch took place at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in a mission to deploy a new satellite for radio subscription service SiriusXM.
The process was divided into three steps: an engine cut-off, a stage separation and a second engine start.
Following stage separation, SpaceX landed Falcon 9’s first stage on the “Just Read the Instructions” droneship, located in the Atlantic Ocean. One half of Falcon 9’s fairing previously supported the ANASIS-II mission in July 2020.
You can watch a replay of this mission above.
SXM-7 satellite
SXM-7 is a high power broadcasting satellite. The Sirius XM satellite constellation currently consists of 5 satellites in geostationary orbit. SXM-7 is one of two upcoming satellites, the other being SXM-8 which is launching in early 2021, aiming to replace the XM-3 and XM-4 satellites.
SXM-7 was built by Maxar Technologies and is based on their SSL-1300 satellite bus; a satellite bus is simply a set of core components that all satellites need (such as avionics, power, communication…) that customers can add to suit their needs. The satellite contains two large solar arrays and batteries for on-orbit storage. SXM-7 will operate in the S-band spectrum, between 2.32 GHz and 2.345 GHz. Each satellite has an operational lifetime of 15 years, after which the satellite is moved into a graveyard orbit.
The Sirius XM satellite constellation was formed in 2008 when Sirius and XM merged into Sirius XM. The constellation provides satellite radio and online radio services to a significant portion of the world.
What is Falcon 9 Block 5?
Falcon 9 Block 5 is SpaceX’s partially reusable two-stage medium-lift launch vehicle. Block 5 is the final iteration of the Falcon 9; the goal is to apply all the lessons learned from 56 previous Falcon 9 pre-Block 5 flights into a human-rated reusable rocket. The Falcon 9 contains 3 main components: a reusable first stage, an expendable second stage, and a reusable fairing or Dragon spacecraft.
