With a launch late Thursday morning, SpaceX sent the newest satellite in SiriusXM’s fleet of radio stations into orbit on a geostationary transfer orbit.

The SXM-9 satellite lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on a Falcon 9 rocket as the 90-minute launch window opened at 11:10 a.m. EST (1610 UTC).



The Falcon 9 first stage booster for this mission, tail number B1076 in the SpaceX fleet, was launched for the 19th time. It previously supported launches of CRS-26, Intelsat IS-40e, Ovzon 3 and ten previous Starlink missions.

Almost 8.5 minutes after launch, B1076 landed on the SpaceX “Just Read the Instructions” drone ship. This was the 101st booster landing on JRTI and the 379th booster landing to date.

Maxar Technologies (NSYE: MAXR) is once again the satellite manufacturer behind the SXM-9 satellite. The company has built satellites for SiriusXM (NASDAQ: SIRI) since 2000, when it manufactured the first generation Sirius satellites.

SXM-9 will be built on Maxar’s 1300 series bus under a contract Maxar announced back in August 2021.

“Maxar’s 1300-class platform has served as a reliable spacecraft platform for decades, and we are pleased that SiriusXM will once again rely on its performance,” said Robert Curbeam, Maxar senior vice president of space capture, in a statement Year 2021. “We look forward to continuing our decades-long collaboration with SiriusXM.”

This was the second satellite launched for SiriusXM since the failure of SXM-7 in orbit, which launched in December 2020. Approximately 8.2 meters tall and weighing 7,000 kg, the SXM-8 was launched in June 2021 and completed in-orbit testing a month later.

SXM-9 has the same dimensions and features a 9 m (29.5 ft) diameter roll-up reflector antenna manufactured by L3Harris Technologies. L3Harris has also been contracted to add its antenna to the upcoming SXM-10 satellite as well.