SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches Israeli Reconnaissance Satellite on Its Final Flight This Year

SpaceX launched a $186 million Israeli Earth-imaging satellite early on Friday, capping off a record-breaking year with its 61st and last Falcon 9 flight of 2022 and its seventh this month.

Since the Falcon 9's introduction in 2010, SpaceX has launched 194 of them, including four triple-core Falcon Heavies. CBS News said the latest launch has resulted in 179 consecutive successful launches since the company's lone in-flight failure in 2015.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with a payload including two lunar rovers from Japan and the United Arab Emirates, lifts off from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Sunday, Dec. 11, 2022. AP Photo/John Raoux

SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches Israeli Imaging Satellite

Space.com said a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California launched the Israeli Earth-imaging satellite EROS C-3 into orbit on Dec. 29, releasing the cargo into orbit around 15 minutes after leaving Earth. At the launch location, the Falcon 9 first stage was launched at 11:38 p.m. PST (2:38 a.m. EST/07:38 GMT), and it returned to land at a SpaceX pad nearby eight minutes later.

To deploy EROS-C3 in low Earth orbit, SpaceX's Falcon 9 launched retrograde to (against) the Earth's rotation. Following three burns, a boosts back maneuver, an entrance burn, and a landing burn-the first stage touched down on the ground in SpaceX's Landing Zone 4 at Vandenberg.

The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket had completed its eleventh mission. It has previously completed six uncrewed commercial and NASA missions, two Starlink internet satellite missions, and two astronaut flights for NASA. Its flawless touchdown made it the 160th orbital rocket landing by SpaceX, counting Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters.

The EROS C-3 launch was SpaceX's second attempt in as many days. The business sent 54 of the newest Starlink broadband satellites into orbit on Wednesday (Dec. 28) by launching its first Gen2 Starlink satellites from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Base.

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About EROS C-3

According to its Israeli manufacturer ImageSat International, the EROS C-3 Earth observation satellite was created to allow "military and intelligence agencies to undertake operations under total anonymity and data security." Spaceflight Now said the spacecraft cost roughly $186 million.

Launched in 2000 and reentering Earth's atmosphere in 2006, the initial EROS satellite, EROS A, was the first of its kind. Because of security reasons, little is known about the fleet's active members (EROS-B, EROS-C1, and EROS C2).

According to Everyday Astronaut, EROS-C3 has a resolution of around one foot (30 centimeters) for greyscale pictures and two feet (60 centimeters) for multispectral imaging. It will join two synthetic aperture radar spacecraft and two more EROS satellites in a group of four before the decade's end.