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SpaceX launches 3 telecom satellites to orbit on 700th Falcon mission of all time (video)
Space • • business
Key Points:
- SpaceX launched three telecom satellites for Luxembourg-based SES' O3b mPOWER constellation on September 13, marking the 700th mission for the Falcon rocket family.
- The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 2:49 p.m. EDT, with its first stage booster B1080 successfully landing on the drone ship "A Shortfall of Gravitas" after its 29th flight.
- The three satellites were deployed into medium Earth orbit at about 5,000 miles altitude, completing the O3b mPOWER constellation designed to provide low latency and high throughput connectivity.
- SES operates a total of 13 O3b mPOWER satellites, all launched by SpaceX across six Falcon 9 missions since December 2022, with the satellites built by Boeing and weighing approximately 3,750 pounds each.
- This launch was SpaceX's 107th orbital mission of 2023, with the Falcon 9 responsible for 105 flights and the Falcon Heavy for two.
