At 21:41 PST on December 23, 2023 (05:41 PST on December 23, 2023), the Falcon 9 carrier rocket carrying two radar satellites, "Salah 2" and "Salah 3", was launched from the SLC-4E station of Vandenberg Space Force Base, sending the satellite into a sun-synchronous orbit.
SARah-2 and SARah-3 are the No. 2 and No. 3 satellites of the SARah constellation, Germany's new-generation military radar remote sensing satellite constellation. The Salah constellation consists of a space component and a ground component, and the space component consists of three radar satellites, of which Salah 1 was successfully launched by Falcon 9 in June 2022.
Schematic diagram of the Salah 2 and Salah 3 satellites
The Salah 2 and Salah 3 satellites are high-resolution radar remote sensing satellites developed by the German company OHB Systems, equipped with passive parabolic reflective antennas for receiving echo radar signals. The satellite has a mass of 1800 kg and a design life of 10 years. The "Salah" constellation fully combines the technical characteristics of the first-generation SAR-Lupe constellation satellite and the TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X dual satellite, and the resolution is increased from 1 meter of the SAR-Lupe satellite to 0.35~0.4 meters.
This launch is the 8th flight of the first stage B1075.8, due to the large margin of capacity, this mission adopts return recovery, and the first stage successfully landed vertically in the landing area of the Vandenberg Space Force Base LZ-4 7 minutes and 45 seconds after ignition.
This launch is the 90th launch of the Falcon 9 rocket in 2023, the 30th launch of the Vandenberg Space Force Base, the 112th launch of the United States, and the 212th launch of the world. So far, SpaceX has completed 94 space launches into orbit this year (Falcon Heavy 4).
Author: Mulan Xingzhou