SpaceX is preparing to launch a secure communications satellite on behalf of Hisdesat, a Spanish communications company.
The SpainSat New Generation 1 (SNG 1) satellite is supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) and manufactured by Airbus Defense and Space. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is scheduled for 8:34 p.m. EST (0134 UTC), the opening of a two-hour window.
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about an hour prior to launch.
The 45th Weather Squadron forecast pretty idiic conditions for liftoff on Wednesday night, forecasting a 95 percent chance of acceptable weather with just thick clouds presenting a possible obstruction.
“Overall, launch weather conditions look favorable as ridging aloft and an area of high pressure at the surface move over the Florida peninsula [Wednesday],” launch weather officers wrote. “The only watch item is jet-induced cirrostratus clouds streaming into the area, which introduces a small risk of a Thick Cloud Layers Rule violation if the bases are low enough.”
The mission will be the 430th Falcon 9 launch to date. SpaceX said because the SNG 1 satellite requires “additional performance” from the Falcon 9 rocket to send it to a geosynchronous transfer orbit, it will not recover the first stage booster, tail number B1073.
Because of this, the booster will not have either grid fins for recovery steering and stability or landing legs. The last time SpaceX flew an expendable Falcon 9 rocket was on Oct. 7, 2024, when it launched the Hera spacecraft for ESA to begin its journey to the Didymos binary asteroid system.
The SNG 1 mission will be the 21st flight of B1073. SpaceX previously used it to launch ispace’s Hakuto-R Mission1, CRS-27 and 13 Starlink missions.
Expending B1073 still leaves SpaceX with 17 flight proven boosters in its lineup. B1067 is its most flown booster having completed 25 missions to date as the company works to certify its boosters for up to 40 flights each.
Bolstering secure communications
The SNG 1 satellite is the first of two for the SpainSat NG Program and will operate in geostationary Earth orbit at the 30 degrees West position. SNG 2 will work in the 29 degrees East position when it launches.
Together, they are designed to provide “effective command and control in operations of the Armed Forces beyond the line of sight in two-thirds of the Earth,” according to Hisdesat. Their coverage area extends from the United States and South America to the Middle East and Europe and out to Singapore.
“SpainSat NG represents the next generation of secure satellite communications in Europe,” said Laurent Jaffart, ESA’s Director of Connectivity and Secure Communications, in a statement. “This launch marks a key milestone in providing more adaptable and secure communications services that will benefit governmental users across Europe and beyond.”
Each satellite weighs about 6.1 tonnes (~13,448 lbs.) and stands 7.2-meters-tall (23.6 ft.). They are built on Airbus’ Eurostar Neo satellite bus and passed a critical design review in December 2021.
Designed for secure military communications, the satellites feature what Airbus calls “cutting-edge direct radiating array (DRA) system[, which] also incorporates advanced features such as the ability to switch between different coverage zones thousands of times per second, the capability to adapt the coverage zones to reduce unwelcomed signals and the ability to locate terrestrial emitters of known or unknown origin with high accuracy.”
The antennas come from a series of Spanish space industry partners and were coordinated through ESA’s Pacis 3 project. The include “reconfigurable transmit and receive X-band active antennas, and the deployable pallet with individually steerable Ka-band antennas,” according to Airbus.
“The X-band active antennas are the most challenging active antennas that have ever been developed in Europe, positioning Hisdesat and the Spanish space industry at the edge of the space technology in active antennas meaning higher competitiveness in the global market,” said Miguel Ángel García Primo, Hisdesat’s CEO.
The satellites are each designed to have a 15-year operating lifespan, barring technical issues.
