SpaceX delays launch of Thuraya 4 mission for UAE satellite company
by Mark Moran
Washington DC (UPI) Jan 2, 2025
SpaceX has delayed the launch of its Thuraya 4 mission from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida until Friday, the company announced on its website Thursday.
Space 42’s Thuraya 4 mission is operated in conjunction with Yahsat, a global satellite company based in the United Arab Emirates. The Thuraya 4 is a communications satellite that will operate in geosynchronous orbit, about 23,000 miles above the Earth’s surface.
“Based on the all-electric Airbus Eurostar-Neo Platform, Thuraya 4-NGS will incorporate a large 12-meter L-band antenna and a payload with on-board processing providing advanced routing flexibility of up to 3200 channels with dynamic power allocation over a large number of spot beams,” the Space Coast Office of Tourism reported on its website.
The Thuraya 4 mission is the first mission of 2025 for the Cape and follows a record number of 93 launches in 2024, and 72 in 2023.
While it will be the first mission of the new year for SpaceX, it will be the 20th time that the first stage fuel booster will have been used to launch a Falcon 9 into low-Earth orbit. It has been used in a half dozen launches of specialty missions, as well as 13 Starlink Internet satellite launches.
The first stage booster is scheduled to land on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas, stationed in the Atlantic Ocean, after it is jettisoned from the Falcon 9 about two and half minutes after liftoff.
The first stage booster typically lands on the drone about eight and a half minutes after liftoff. The Thuraya 4 satellite is scheduled to be deployed 35 minutes after liftoff.
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