December kicked off for SpaceX with a Falcon 9 ride-sharing mission with a payload of 25 spacecraft on board. The launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base was titled Korea Mission 425.
The rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at 10:19 a.m. PST (1:19 a.m. EDT, 1819 UTC). The launch is scheduled to be the first of two missions SpaceX plans to launch over the weekend. The company aims to launch another batch of 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The mission booster, B1061, made its 17th flight having previously launched the Crew-1 and Crew-2 missions along with the 4th and 5th Transporter rideshare missions. This launch also marks the first time the Falcon 9 first stage will be supported by more than 15 previous non-Starlink mission flights.
After launch, the booster touched down again at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at VSFB about eight and a half minutes after liftoff.
Topping the list of 25 spacecraft on board for Friday morning’s launch was a South Korean Agency for Defense Development (ADD) satellite, Project 425. It features electro-optical (EO) and infrared (IR) sensors with a resolution of 30 cm.
Agency spokesman He told the press Earlier this month, this will be the country’s first military spy satellite with four additional satellites to be launched by 2025.
Those four additional satellites (Synthetic Aperture Radar) are now being launched. developed Powered by Thales Alenia Space in partnership with Aerospace Industries, LTD. Hanwha Systems Inc.
“Thales Alenia Space is honored to have the trust of the Korean Ministry of Defense and other authorities involved in this project, who have recognized our proven track record in delivering modern surveillance satellites,” said Donato Amoruso, Senior Vice President, Donato Amoruso. -Head of the Observation, Exploration and Navigation Department at Thales Alenia Space Company, in a statement in 2018.
Satellite connectivity is worth $930 million per Defense News.
According to 2022 a report In JeongAng, the satellite will be launched on Friday with four SAR satellites into an orbit between 600 and 700 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, and is designed to monitor North Korea every two hours.
The launch of the mission follows North Korea’s claims that it successfully launched its spy satellite on November 21, an action that was condemned by several countries, including the United States. US National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said the launch using ballistic missile technology was “a flagrant violation of numerous UN Security Council resolutions,” adding that it “risks destabilizing the security situation in the region and beyond.”
Along for the ride
In addition to South Korea’s EO/IR satellite, SpaceX said there are 25 additional spacecraft riding on the Falcon 9 rocket.
Although it does not provide an exhaustive list, it names the following payloads:
- BD ISL48 space
- SITAEL’s uHETSat
- D-Orbit’s ION SCV Daring Diego
- York Space Systems
- Gnomes-4 from Planet Q
SITAEL SpA’s uHETSat is a MicroSat mission supported by the European Space Agency (ESA). It features an electric propulsion system known as the Hall Effect Thruster and is powered by xenon fuel.
The satellite will start at an altitude of 550 kilometers and “the goal is to achieve at least 1,000 ignition cycles and one ignition exceeding 600 seconds,” the European Space Agency said in a statement.
Compact and innovative electric propulsion system from @SITAELspa It has been cleared to fly on @ESAA small satellite demonstration mission powered by μHETSat technology, scheduled for launch by the end of the year https://t.co/rNVFq4nj2G pic.twitter.com/oT8NTTs5qj
– European Space Agency Technology (ESA_Tech) June 27, 2023
According to an FCC filing dated November 9, 2023, the Satellite Programs and Policy Division gave PlanetiQ authorization to deploy the GNOMES-4 satellite HAT at a range of 505 and 545 kilometers at an inclination of 97 to 98 degrees.
It is allowed to “operate GNOME-4 at altitudes ranging from about 525 kilometers to about 430 kilometers, and at an inclination of 97.6 degrees (+/- 0.5 degrees) in a sun-synchronous orbit, allowing for natural orbital decay.”
ESA’s previous satellite write-up for the GNOMES constellation describes it as “the first commercial GNSS-RO (Global Navigation Satellite System – Radio Occultation) weather satellite constellation.” He points out that there are 20 such satellites planned for the constellation.
GNOMES stands for GNSS Navigation Satellites and Occultimetry. The first was launched in August 2020 and is manufactured by Blue Canyon Technologies in Boulder, Colorado.
Other payloads flying on the mission include: CoyohMicroSat from Kanazawa University in Japan; Ireland’s first satellite, the 2U CubeSat, has been called ERSAT-1 (Irish Education Research Satellite) built by students and staff at University College Dublin; Privateer Space’s CubeSat is called “Bonowhich was described before launch as “an edge computing, storage, machine learning and data transfer unit available to satellite operators as a hosted payload.”
Bono was one of the spacecraft hosted on D-Orbit’s ION satellite carrier vehicle dubbed “Daring Diego,” D-Orbit’s 13th mission.
“Beer buff. Devoted pop culture scholar. Coffee ninja. Evil zombie fan. Organizer.”
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