Update for 5:45 p.m. EDT: SpaceX is now targeting the launch of the SATRIA-1 satellite for Indonesia for tonight at the earliest at 18:21 EDT (2221 GMT). That’s a 15-minute delay from the original target at 6:06 p.m. EDT due to high upper-level winds, SpaceX says.
SpaceX will launch an Indonesian communications satellite tonight (June 18) to put the returning rocket into orbit and land at sea, and you can watch the action live.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the SATRIA-1 satellite is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida today at 18:21 EDT (2221 GMT) during a 178-minute launch window.
You can watch it live here on Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly through the company. Coverage is expected to begin approximately 15 minutes before launch.
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch a series of the company’s Starlink broadband satellites on March 3, 2023. (Image credit: SpaceX)
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9 first stage will return to Earth for a vertical touchdown on SpaceX’s A Shortfall of Gravitas drone ship, which will be based in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida. The landing should take place about 8.5 minutes after take-off.
According to a SpaceX mission brief, it will be the twelfth launch and landing of this particular booster. These previous efforts included four Dragon missions to the International Space Station for NASA, two of them crewed and two of them robotic resupply flights.
The Falcon 9 upper stage will continue to place SATRIA-1 into geosynchronous transfer orbit, eventually deploying the satellite there just under 37 minutes after launch.
SATRIA-1 (whose name is short for “Republic of Indonesia Satellite”) is operated for the Indonesian government by the Indonesian company PSN.
The $550 million spacecraft “is set to drive the integration of connectivity in the country and provide free internet connectivity to 150,000 public entities, including schools, regional government offices and healthcare facilities,” according to the Jakarta Post.
“SATRIA-1 will have a throughput capacity of 150 billion bits per second, three times the capacity of the nine telecommunications satellites Indonesia currently uses,” the outlet added.