![]() “It is one of the world’s largest spacecraft in terms of weight and power, but inside of it, I think the thing that makes it unique is all the signal processing that goes on,” said Peter Hadinger, Inmarsat’s chief technology officer. The Inmarsat 6 F2 spacecraft weighed 12,048 pounds (5,465 kilograms) at launch, with more than a ton of that mass consisting of xenon gas to fuel the satellite’s electric propulsion system, according to a company spokesperson. Liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral on SpaceX’s second launch of the day, carrying an Inmarsat mobile communications satellite to geostationary transfer orbit. With a solar array wingspan as wide as a Boeing 767 jetliner and a body the size of a double-decker bus, the Inmarsat 6 F2 spacecraft will be parked in geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the Earth, using a dual-band communications payload provide in-flight WiFi on aircraft, broadband services to ships, and connectivity for U.S. The plasma thrusters are positioned on the ends of articulating robotic arms, providing precise pointing as the satellite circularizes its orbit and moves from an inclination of 27 degrees - the drop-off orbit SpaceX will reach with the Falcon 9 - to a position directly over the equator. Then the satellite will continue reshaping its orbit using the electric propulsion system, which is lighter and more efficient than conventional liquid-fueled maneuvering rockets. ![]() Once the satellite’s thrusters move the perigee, or low point, of its orbit safely above the atmosphere, ground teams will send commands to a full deployment of the solar arrays and the unfurling of a large 30-foot (9-meter) umbrella-like L-band antenna reflector next week. Now safely in orbit, the satellite will begin a series of health checks and a partial deployment of its power-generating solar arrays. The Inmarsat 6 F2 spacecraft, based on Airbus’s Eurostar 3000e satellite platform, checked in with ground controllers soon after separating from the Falcon 9 rocket. Credit: Michael Cain / Spaceflight Now / Coldlife Photography SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off with the Inmarsat 6 F2 communications satellite. The first stage of the Falcon 9, flying for the third time, returned to Earth for landing on a drone ship east of Cape Canaveral in the Atlantic Ocean about eight-and-a-half minutes after launch. The rocket’s upper stage released the Inmarsat 6 F2 satellite into orbit about 32 minutes after liftoff, following two picture perfect engine firings with its single Merlin engine. The Falcon 9’s nine Merlin engines, generating 1.7 million pounds of thrust, powered the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) launcher east from Cape Canaveral to deliver Inmarsat’s new communications satellite into an elongated geostationary transfer orbit stretching more than 20,000 miles (more than 34,000 kilometers) above Earth at its highest point, and as low as 155 miles (250 kilometers) at the point closest to Earth. EST (0359 GMT Saturday), less than nine hours after a Falcon 9 rocket took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The Friday night launch from Cape Canaveral began at 10:59 p.m. ![]() SpaceX completed a launch doubleheader Friday night with the liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral carrying a dual-band, six-ton mobile communications relay station for London-based Inmarsat, hours after launching another Falcon 9 from California with a batch of Starlink internet satellites.
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