KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — In a rare double launch day, SpaceX sent up a pair of Maxar’s Worldview Legion imaging satellites on Tuesday evening.
Earlier in the day, the California-based company launched more than 20 Starlink satellites.
What You Need To Know
- The Falcon 9 rocket launched the fifth and sixth WorldView Legion satellites from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center
- Sonic booms were heard as the first-stage booster landed on Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
SpaceX’s famed Falcon 9 rocket sent up the fifth and sixth WorldView Legion satellites from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center at 6:13 p.m. ET, stated the company.
The launch was originally scheduled for Monday evening, but SpaceX said just before 3 p.m. ET, Monday, that it was targeting no earlier than 6:07 p.m. ET, Tuesday for the launch.
On Tuesday afternoon, it pushed the target time to 6:13 p.m. ET.
No reason was given for the delays.
The 45th Weather Squadron gave about a 95% chance of good liftoff weather with no concerns, despite the very foggy conditions at the launch pad.
If there was another delay, the next attempt would have been 5:42 p.m. ET, Wednesday.
As mentioned earlier, this was a rare double-launch day for the Space Coast. The last time there were two launches in one day was back on Nov. 11, 2024, where SpaceX launched Starlink satellites and a South Korean communications satellite.
Going into the black
This will be the fourth flight for the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster, B1086. With only three missions under its wide belt, it is no stranger to launching satellites.
- GOES-U
- Starlink 12-5
- Starlink 12-11 mission
Sonic booms were heard as the first-stage booster landed on Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
About the mission
Based in Colorado, the Maxar company has seen a number of its Worldview Legion satellites go into orbit.
This launch will see its latest ones, satellites five and six.
These satellites grant high-resolution images designed to help with precision mapping, site monitoring and geospatial analytics, among other things.
“Once all six WorldView Legion satellites are fully operational, the Maxar constellation will be able to collect more than 6 million sq km of Earth imagery per day, including up to 3.6 million sq km of 30 cm-class imagery. These capabilities will deliver more very high-resolution capacity to support critical use cases such as site monitoring, emergency response, maritime surveillance and civil government use cases,” explained Maxar.