Oct. 8 (UPI) — SpaceX introduced two Intelsat satellites into low-Earth orbit after the project aborted two days earlier Thursday night.
Onlookers saw the rocket peeking out in front of the emerging full moon.
The first level of the Falcon nine landed on the drone A Shortfall of Gravitas – the fourteenth launch and landing of this booster!pic. twitter. com/ywUWHBn8qE
The Falcon nine’s first-level booster landed several hundred miles in the Atlantic Ocean on the A Shortfall of Gravitas drone about nine minutes later, according to SpaceX. This is the fourteenth launch and landing of the Falcon booster nine.
The first level of the Falcon nine landed on the drone A Shortfall of Gravitas – the fourteenth launch and landing of this booster!pic. twitter. com/ywUWHBn8qE
This is the fourteenth record launch for a Falcon first stage nine. The mark was set last month when the BlueWalker 3 communications satellite and 34 Starlinks were sent into space.
Intelsat said in a statement that the Galaxy 33 satellite is expected to enter service in November and will “ensure some continuity of service for distribution to cable headends across the United States. “
The Galaxy 34 will update the Galaxy 12 and be in service “late 2022. “
The satellites will be 22,300 miles above the equator and in direct line with North America.
The company said the satellites were “part of an overall plan” to upgrade Intelsat’s Galaxy fleet.
The Galaxy 33 and 34 will be used through HBO, Disney Channel, Starz and Discovery Channel.
The launch was delayed by a day on Friday “to allow more time for vehicle boxes,” SpaceX said in a statement. It was originally scheduled for Thursday night, but was erased 30 seconds after liftoff due to a small helium leak.
This is the 44th Cape Canaveral-based orbital launch attempt this year, all with a Falcon 9.
The Falcon nine was intended to launch Thursday, but triggered an automatic shutdown. This was due to a small helium leak, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter.
“A small helium leak (barely caused by abandonment), but we took a chance with consumer satellites,” he tweeted.
Since June 2010, Falcon nine circle of relatives rockets have been introduced 183 times.
ULA effectively unveiled a project using European television satellites on Tuesday.