The Falcon 9 lifted off from historic Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida today (July 1) at 5:04 p.m. EST (2104 GMT), carrying the MTG-Sounder (MTG-S1) satellite toward geostationary transfer orbit.
The rocket's first stage came back to Earth as planned about 8.5 minutes later, touching down on the SpaceX drone ship "Just Read the Instructions," which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
It was the ninth launch and landing for this particular booster (which is designated B1085), according to a SpaceX mission description. Among the booster's previous flights were the Fram2 private astronaut mission, the Crew-9 flight to the International Space Station for NASA and a January 2025 launch that sent two private landers toward the moon: Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost and ispace's Resilience.
The Falcon 9's upper stage deployed MTG-S1 about 35 minutes after liftoff today as planned. The satellite will now make its way to geostationary orbit (GEO), which lies 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers) above Earth.
At this altitude, orbital speed matches Earth's rotational speed, meaning satellites there "hover" over the same patch of the planet continuously. For this reason, GEO is a popular destination for weather and reconnaissance spacecraft.
MTG-S1 is the second of the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) satellites to take flight. The first was MTG-I (MTG Imager), which launched atop an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket in December 2022.
The MTG spacecraft are operated by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), an international group based in Germany that has 30 member states.
Source: www.space.com
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