At 05:35 Beijing time on June 21, 2024 (17:35 EST on the 20th), at the SLC-40 station of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida, SpaceX, using the Falcon 9 carrier rocket to launch the ASTRA 1P high-orbit communications satellite, and put the satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit 34 minutes and 55 seconds after ignition.
The ASTRA 1P/SES-24 large high-orbit communications satellite is owned by the European Satellite Corporation (SES) and the main contractor for the project is Thales Alenia Space. The satellite adopts the Thales Alenia Space Corporation's Spacebus NEO all-electric propulsion platform, which is a wide-beam satellite, equipped with 80 Ku-band transponders, which can broadcast more than 500 TV channels at the same time, and will become one of the world's largest high-orbit communication satellites with an in-orbit communication capacity of 5 tons.
The ASTRA 1P satellite will rely on an electric propulsion system to slowly raise its orbit and finally settle in its geostationary orbit above the equator at 19.2 degrees east longitude. The satellite will provide millions of homes with HDTV picture quality signals.
The Falcon 9 rocket used the first stage B1080.9 of the 9th flight, using the recovery under the course (ASDS), and the first stage landed vertically on the JRTI automatic recovery ship located in the Atlantic Ocean 8 minutes and 34 seconds after ignition, which is the 320th recovery landing (including return recovery) of the first-stage module of the core of the "Falcon" series of rockets in service. On the morning of May 23, Beijing time, the first-class B1080.8 implemented the Starlink G6-62 mission, 29 days after the mission.
This launch is the 62nd space launch of the Falcon 9 rocket into orbit in 2024, the 33rd launch of Cape Canaveral Space Force Base, the 73rd launch of the United States, and the 117th launch of the world.
Author: Mulan Xingzhou