SpaceX launched an Egyptian communications satellite toward a high-altitude geostationary orbit Wednesday from Cape Canaveral. It was the first commercial launch of a geostationary payload this year, another sign of a market shift toward smaller, lower-orbiting communications satellites.
With the successful launch, the Nilesat 301 satellite began a 15-year mission to provide Ultra HD television broadcast services and internet connectivity over Egypt and other parts of Africa and the Middle East.
The 229-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket blasted off at 5:04 p.m. EDT (2104 GMT) Wednesday from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, beginning a 33-minute mission to place the roughly 9,000-pound (4.1-metric ton) Nilesat 301 spacecraft into an elongated transfer orbit ranging nearly 28,000 miles (45,000 kilometers) above Earth.
The Falcon 9 delivered Nilesat 301 to an orbit inclined about 18.6 degrees to the equator, according to U.S. military tracking data.
Owned by the Egyptian operator Nilesat, largely controlled by Egypt’s government, the new satellite is destined for an operating position in a circular geostationary orbit, or GEO, more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator at 7 degrees west longitude, where it will provide TV broadcast and internet services.
The spacecraft will use its own propulsion system for the final maneuvers to reach its operational orbit.
The launch Wednesday was the 23rd Falcon 9 launch of the year, and the first with a satellite heading toward geostationary orbit, a popular location for TV broadcasting and data relay spacecraft. It was also the first truly commercial launch into a geostationary transfer orbit worldwide this year.
The geostationary satellite launch market was once a lucrative business for launch providers, including SpaceX. But the satellite market has shifted to smaller spacecraft, including constellations flying in low Earth orbit, or LEO, to beam broadband signals to consumers.
Geostationary satellites are typically large and carry more communications capacity than a single LEO telecom spacecraft. In geostationary orbit, they orbit in lock-step with Earth’s rotation, allowing an antenna on the ground to point at the same place in the sky for a continuous link with the satellite.
SpaceX operates the Starlink network, the world’s largest fleet of satellites, and other companies are in the process of developing and deploying their own low-orbit constellations.