A new satellite for the SiriusXM radio show across North America launched the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket into orbit on Sunday from Cape Canaveral to replace an aging broadcast station launched 15 years ago.
The Sirius XM’s SXM7 spacecraft, built by Maxer in Palo Alto, California, will be the first of two new generation digital broadcasting satellites set to join the company’s fleet in the coming months.
At the Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida, the satellite lifted about 15,000 pounds (approximately 7 metric tons) from the top pad of a Falcon 9 rocket EST (1730 GMT) at 12:30 a.m. Sunday.
A rocket in the sky on an Easter track off Florida’s space coast, the 229-foot (70 meters) Falcon 9 rocket surpassed the speed of sound in a minute, and then left its first stage booster in more than two and a half minutes on the plane.
Using the restarts of its Merlin main engines, the first stage returned to SpaceX’s drone “Just Reed the Instructions” for a vertical landing several hundred miles east of Cape Canaveral in the Atlantic Ocean. This successful rescue marked the seventh voyage in space for the SpaceX booster known as B1051 in the company’s rocket cargo.
Two SpaceX boats were sent down to retrieve two parts of the Falcon 9’s clamshell-like payload firing, which came out of the rocket’s nose just minutes after the lift was turned off.
The Falcon 9’s single-use upper level, meanwhile, is in orbit with the SXM7 satellite. The first burn of the upper stage put the spacecraft in an initial parking orbit, and the resumption of the journey of about 26 minutes plunged the commercial satellite into an elliptical “sub-synchronous” orbit.
The rocket was orbiting at an altitude of 12,000 miles (20,000 km) at the highest point on Earth. SpaceX says Falcon 9 has sent its satellite passengers into perfect orbit.
A live video stream from the rocket showed the 27-foot (8 meters) SXM7 spacecraft separating from the upper echelon of the Falcon 9 in Africa.
Maxer, the spacecraft manufacturer, confirmed the satellite was healthy following its launch on Sunday.
Shortly after launch, the satellite extended its solar panels to generate electricity, Maxer said. The ground teams at Maxer also made contact with the satellite as expected.
“Next, the SXM7 will begin its drive to begin its journey into its final geostationary orbit,” Maxer said.
These maneuvers will elevate the SXM7 to 22,000 miles (approximately 36,000 kilometers) towards a functional perch in geostationary orbit. In that orbit, the spacecraft orbits the Earth at the same rate as the planet, which gives the SXM 7 a fixed view of the United States 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“The satellite will provide a consistent, reliable distribution of Sirius XM’s audio entertainment and information services to consumers in the United States, and will expand Sirius XM’s coverage in Canada and the Caribbean over the years to come,” Sirius XM Sight said in a statement. “The SXM7 will deliver the highest power density of any commercial satellite into orbit, sending it to the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, which has a content of 8,000 watts, which will increase the power and reach of the Sirius XM signal.”
Once in geostationary orbit, the SXM7 satellite – based on Maxer’s 1300-series spacecraft design – developed the large S-band antenna made by L3 Harris to transmit radio signals to receivers in moving vehicles.
The SXM3 radio broadcasting satellite is expected to replace the SXM7 with an 85 degree west longitude. The Boeing-built XM3 satellite was launched in 2005 on a maritime launch Zenit3 SL rocket.
The SXM7 launch was scheduled for earlier this year, but an issue during the space shuttle test at Maker delayed the voyage. SpaceX on Friday wiped out a launch attempt to conduct additional ground system tests.
Sirius XM Sunday has five of its active satellites, the XM3 being the oldest.
The company said in a statement that it will extend SiriusXM services to at least 2036 next year on the SXM7 and SXM8 dual satellites – the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
SiriusXM’s SXM7 satellite launch is a busy week for SpaceX.
On December 6, SpaceX launched its first upgraded Cargo Dragon spacecraft from pad 39AV at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The automated cruise ship – a new version of the game enhancements and based on SpaceX’s human-rated Crew Dragon capsule – arrived at the International Space Station on Monday, December 7 for successful docking.
Meanwhile, SpaceX teams in South Texas on Wednesday unveiled the company’s next-generation Starship vehicle high-altitude test aircraft. The 164-foot (50 m) prototype rocket flew to a methane-powered Raptor engine-powered aircraft, then made the descent toward a landing pad at the SpaceX test station in Boca Chico, Texas, near the US-Mexico. Border.
The Starship Rocket performed a dramatic turning maneuver to land, but the vehicle exploded in a fireball, causing it to crash land. Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, praised the test flight.
The reusable starship can eventually carry more than 100 tons of cargo into space, and can carry people to the moon, Mars and other deep space spaces.
With the introduction of the SXM7, SpaceX 2020 has fulfilled 25 successful Falcon 9 passengers so far.
There is one more release on SpaceX’s schedule this year. A Falcon 9 rocket is ready to explode from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center before 9 a.m. Thursday with a classified load for the U.S. government’s intelligence agency’s National Assessment Office.
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