SpaceX launches ride share mission with South Korean spy satellite, first Irish satellite – Spaceflight Now

Kicking off the month of December for SpaceX was a Falcon 9 ride share mission with a payload of 25 spacecraft on board. The launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base was headlined by the Korea 425 mission.

The rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at 10:19 a.m. PST (1:19 EST, 1819 UTC). The launch is set to be the first of two missions SpaceX plans to launch over the weekend. The company aims to launch another batch of 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the early hours of Saturday morning.

(This second launch has since been pushed to Sunday morning UTC)

The booster for the mission, B1061, made its 17th flight after previously launching the Crew-1 and Crew-2 missions along with the fourth and fifth Transporter rideshare missions. This launch also marked the first time a Falcon 9 first stage with more than 15 previous flight will support a non-Starlink mission.

Headlining the slate of 25 spacecraft on board the Friday morning launch was a satellite for South Korea’s Agency for Defense Development (ADD) and its 425 Project. It features a 30cm resolution electro-optic (EO) and infrared (IR) sensors.

A spokesperson for the agency told the press earlier this month that this would be the country’s first military spy satellite with four additional satellites launching by 2025.

In addition to the EO/IR satellite for South Korea, SpaceX said there are 25 additional spacecraft hitching a ride on the Falcon 9 rocket.

While it doesn’t give an exhaustive list, it does name the following payloads:

• Space BD’s ISL48
• SITAEL’s uHETSat
• D-Orbit’s ION SCV Daring Diego
• York Space Systems’ Bane
• PlanetiQ’s GNOMES-4

(Full article contains a bit more detail on uHETSat and GNOMES-4)

Launch thread: https://sh.itjust.works/post/10196291