SpaceX Launch Swedish Broadband Satellite Ovzon-3 Aboard Falcon 9 After Ariane 5’s Demise

SpaceX sent another broadband satellite into orbit. Elon Musk's space company successfully launched the Swedish broadband satellite Ovzon 3.

SpaceX Launches Swedish Broadband Satellite Ovzon 3

On Wednesday night (Jan. 3), SpaceX launched a Swedish broadband satellite as part of the business's second mission for 2024. At 6:04 p.m. EST (2304 GMT), a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Ovzon 3 satellite took off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the United States.

The first stage of the Falcon 9 made its scheduled return to Earth tonight, landing at Cape Canaveral roughly eight minutes after takeoff. Per the SpaceX mission description, this was the booster's 10th launch and landing.

Meanwhile, the upper stage of the Falcon 9 continued to launch Ovzon 3. About 38.5 minutes after launch, as scheduled, it placed the spacecraft in geosynchronous transfer orbit, according to a post made by SpaceX on X, formerly Twitter.

@twitter|https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1742693113616064713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw@

Ovzon 3, a communications satellite, is "the first privately funded and developed Swedish geostationary satellite." Its steerable spot beams will cover one-third of the Earth and satisfy the need for improved mobile broadband coverage in underserved areas.

On Tuesday (Jan. 2), the corporation launched 21 Starlink internet satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, including the first six "direct to cell" spacecraft. There will be many more launches soon; according to SpaceX officials, the corporation plans to conduct 144 orbital flights this year. That would surpass the 2023 record of 96 set by SpaceX.

Ovzon 3 was supposed to launch aboard the Ariane 5 rocket. However, it was only ready months after the European launcher retired.

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What Happened to Ariane 5 Rocket?

Ariane 5 made its final mission on July 5, 2023. It departed at 6 p.m. from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Eastern.

Launch day was moved to June 16 after Arianespace determined that three pyrotechnic transmission lines needed to be replaced to separate the rocket's solid rocket boosters. The launch was rescheduled for July 4, only to be moved for another day due to severe upper-level winds.

For Ariane 5's last mission, it carried two communications satellites on its previous mission, which was to place them in a geostationary transfer orbit. Heinrich-Hertz-Satellit, a spacecraft constructed by OHB for the German Space Agency on behalf of other German government organizations, was launched by the rocket around 30 minutes after liftoff. The rocket's second cargo, the Syracuse 4B satellite for the French military, was found approximately three and a half minutes later.

"It is a success for 'Team Europe' tonight with this last and final Ariane 5," Stéphane Israël, chief executive of Arianespace, said about Ariane 5's final mission.

The launch was the 117th and final flight of the Ariane 5 after over 27 years of service. However, Israel teased that its successor, Ariane 6, was coming.

"Ariane 5 is now over, and Ariane 5 has perfectly finished its work and really is now a legendary launcher," Israël said. "But Ariane 6 is coming."