CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off Monday evening carrying a “behemoth” communications satellite from Kennedy Space Center.
Weighing in at nearly 13,500 pounds atop the rocket, the fourth Inmarsat-5 satellite was the heaviest payload carried by a Falcon 9 yet.
Spectators who have become used to seeing and hearing the landing of the Falcon 9’s first stage would be disappointed.
The 15-story rocket needed all its fuel and 1.7 million pounds of liftoff thrust to deliver the spacecraft, larger than a double-decker bus, on its way to an orbit more than 22,000 miles over the equator.
This Falcon 9 was not equipped with landing legs and SpaceX did not attempt to land the rocket’s first stage either at Cape Canaveral or on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean.
London-based Inmarsat, which has a Palm Bay office with about 200 employees, initially booked the mission on a Falcon Heavy rocket. SpaceX’s heavy-lift launcher could debut later this year, but for schedule reasons the mission was switched to the latest version of the Falcon 9.
The Inmarsat-5 Flight 4 satellite, built by Boeing, will complete Inmarsat’s four-satellite Global Xpress constellation focused on delivering high-speed broadband data to mobile customers including commercial aircraft and ships and the U.S. military.
“I’m sure we’re going to have a really, really exciting show (Monday),” said Inmarsat CEO Rupert Pearce. “Everyone at Inmarsat, SpaceX and Boeing is really, really pumped about this launch. It’s a very significant one for us at Inmarsat, because we call it the end of the beginning of the Global Xpress era.”
Weather could not have been better Monday for a launch with a 90 percent chance for favorable conditions and clear sky.
Launch details:
Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9 (expendable)
Mission: Fourth Inmarsat-5 Global Xpress communications satellite
Launch Time: 7:21 p.m.
Launch Window: to 8:10 p.m.
Launch Complex: 39A at Kennedy Space Center
Weather: 90 percent “go”