SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches the Sirius XM radio satellite this morning

Stay tuned, SiriusXM Radio listeners, your programming will soon receive a signal boost.

SpaceX is poised to launch the SXM-9 satellite for SiriusXM satellite radio on Thursday morning (December 5). The payload marks the tenth spacecraft launched for SiriusXM and the company’s third satellite to fly into orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. A 90-minute launch window for the SXM-9 mission opens at 11:10 a.m. ET (1610 GMT), launching from Launch Complex-39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.

A livestream of today’s launch will begin approximately five minutes before the launch window opens and can be viewed on SpaceX’s website and X account.

The Falcon 9 first stage launch vehicle is expected to return several miles off Florida’s Space Coast and land on SpaceX’s Just Read the Instructions drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. This will be the 19th flight of this particular launch vehicle, closing the gap on SpaceX’s most-flown launch vehicle, which currently holds the record with 24 flights.

Previous flights of this booster include ten Starlink launches, as well as the CRS-26 cargo mission to the ISS, OneWeb Launch 16, Instelsat IS-40e, O3B mPOWER, Ovzon 3, Eutelsat 36D, Turksat 6A and Maxar 2, according to SpaceX.

After separation from its carrier, Falcon 9’s upper stage will propel the satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit, where it will detach from the rocket and fly under its own power to its final orbital position.

SXM-9 was designed and manufactured by Maxar Technologies and is based on the company’s SSL-1300 satellite bus. The last SiriusXM satellite mission took place in 2021 and launched SXM-8. This satellite and its predecessor SXM-7, launched the year before in 2020, were both intended to replace a pair of aging Sirius satellites, XM-3 and XM-4.

However, SXM-7 was declared lost in orbit about a month after launch, extending the expected use of the aging satellites, both launched in 2005.

Although the satellite radio company’s service to its customers was not affected by the loss of SXM-7 and XM-3 and satellite network.

The weather for this morning’s Falcon 9 mission is currently good for launch, but there are opportunities to secure it. Should today’s Falcon 9 launch be canceled, SpaceX has indicated that another window will open on Friday, December 6, at the same time at 11:10 a.m. ET (1610 GMT).

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SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches the Sirius XM radio satellite this morning

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