SpaceX launches Super-Heavy Intelsat 35e Satellite

On July 5, 2017, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket successfully delivered super-heavy Intelsat 35e, a commercial communications satellite, to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO).

Details about Intelsat 35e Satellite launch by SpaceX:

Intelsat 35e was launched from Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, US. After a half-hour trek across the Atlantic, the Falcon 9 deployed Intelsat 35e around 32 minutes into the flight.

• Intelsat 35e will replace the aging Intelsat 903 satellite and will primarily support wireless communications operators in Africa and Latin America, offer broadband services to cruise ships, and broadcast television to Caribbean customers for the French company Canal+.
• With a mass of 6,761kg, the Intelsat 35e communications satellite is the heaviest payload SpaceX has ever launched toward geostationary orbit, about 36,000km above the Earth’s surface. Due to this reason, the rocket will not have enough fuel reserves to attempt a safe return to Earth.
• Earlier SpaceX tried to launch this satellite on 3^rd July, 2017 and 4^th July, 2017, but both times an unspecified technical issue with the rocket’s guidance, navigation, and control system led the rocket’s flight computer to stop the countdown within 10 seconds of launch time.
• This was SpaceX’s 10th launch of 2017. SpaceX’s next launch is planned for August 10, 2017, when the company will send a supply mission to the International Space Station.

About SpaceX:

Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, better known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturerand space transport services company.

• It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars.
• Headquarters of SpaceX is located in California, US.
• SpaceX has since developed the Falconlaunch vehicle family and the Dragon spacecraft family, which both currently deliver payloads into Earth orbit.