SpaceX launches 4 Astranis satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral – Space Flight Now

After a rare pad outage on December 21, SpaceX is once again preparing to launch four satellites into geosynchronous transfer orbit from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The company had to exchange the first stage booster for another one before proceeding with the mission.

Transfer of the Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) is set for 12 EST (0500 UTC) on Sunday, December 29. This is the start of an approximately 2.5 hour long window.

Spaceflight Now will have live coverage of the mission beginning approximately one hour before liftoff.



Going into the launch attempt, the 45th Weather Squadron predicted an 85 percent chance of favorable weather at takeoff. The only concern to note was the presence of cumulus clouds.

“The surface high pressure will continue to push off the northeast coast today. Although it is isolated

showers are possible near the spaceport today, conditions should improve overnight during the primary launch window,” launch weather officers wrote. “A cold front is approaching from the north-west on Sunday, which is helping to increase the humidity across the region.

“While the main line of showers and thunderstorms is expected to clear the area before the backup launch window opens, scattered showers are expected just ahead of the front, which could affect the backup launch window.”

After the botched launch, SpaceX switched Falcon 9 first stage booster B1077 to B1083. The latter is being launched for the seventh time after previously supporting Crew-8 for NASA; the commercial astronaut mission, Polaris Dawn; the CRS-31 flight to the International Space Station and three Starlink missions.

SpaceX released no further information about the cause of the botched first launch attempt or information about the need to replace the boosters.

Almost 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1083 will land on the SpaceX drone ship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’. If successful, this will mark the 91st booster landing at ASOG and the 389th booster landing to date.

Small package, big mission

The four satellites aboard the FOTM mission are called MicroGEO satellites, as they are each about the size of a washing machine. They were built at Astranis’ Pier 70 facilities in San Francisco, California, and are designed to operate for about eight to ten years.

Two of the satellites, called NuView Alpha and NuView Bravo, are designed to serve Anuvu’s aerospace and marine customers. The agreement between the two companies was announced back in July 2021 and will service the area in North America and the Caribbean.

“We aim to expand our connectivity network in a way that is scalable and agile for our mobility customers,” Josh Marks, CEO of Anuvu said in a 2021 press release. “Astranis and its MicroGEO satellites will offer Anuvu customers decades of freedom long contracts or outdated legacy systems.Most importantly, they are fast to market, have a mission life of seven to ten years and can be controlled and updated from the ground, enabling our mobility customers to pivot their business model as new technology is introduced.”

Anuvu ordered the two satellites to be launched on Friday (originally scheduled for launch in “early 2023”) in addition to six more that will be added in the future.



Also on board the FOTM launch is one called ‘AGILA’, which is the name of the national bird of the Philippines. This is the second satellite to provide service to this country through a partnership with Orbits Corp.

The first of these two satellites to launch, originally scheduled for launch in the first quarter of 2024, will be followed by another at a later date.

“Expanding our Philippines program to include an additional Astranis MicroGEO satellite means Orbits Corp will be able to double the number of people it connects on the most remote islands of the Philippines,” wrote John Gedmark, Astranis founder and CEO CEO in a November 2023 blog post. “Millions of people, many of whom live on less than $5,000 a year, will be able to connect to the Internet as a direct result.

“Orbits Corp estimates that this two-satellite program will bring up to 10,000 direct and indirect jobs to the Philippines, accelerate economic growth and spur economic development in many of the smallest and most remote communities in the fast-growing nation.”

GEO mobility

The final satellite launch aboard the FOTM mission is called ‘UtilitySat’, which will initially be used for Astrani’s customer, ISP Apco Networks in Mexico.

This is the first of two MicroGEO satellites sold to the company, which have the ability to “connect up to five million people,” Gedmark said in a 2023 blog post.

“A number of our employees at Astranis come from Mexico, some from small communities where connectivity is very poor or non-existent,” he said. “As they told us, and as we found out from further research, the need for better connectivity in Mexico is obvious – more than 30 percent of the country does not have Internet access today, and satellite is often the only way to connect remote and rural communities scattered beyond the rugged, mountainous terrain of Mexico’s 32 states.

“And the nation itself is focused on improving the availability of satellite Internet. Connectivity is a constitutional right in Mexico, and the president has made connectivity a national priority.”

UtilitySat is unique from the other three satellites on this mission because it is designed to adjust its orbital position and support a different mission than its original one at launch.

“UtilitySat is the world’s first multi-mission commercial GEO satellite capable of fully operational broadband connectivity missions in the Ka, Ku and Q/V bands,” Astranis wrote on its website. “UtilitySat is a fully maneuverable satellite with built-in propulsion, and UtilitySat will perform several such missions throughout its life in orbit – moving or repositioning every year, month or day to meet pressing customer needs.”

The company said it plans to launch “a fleet of UtilitySat satellites in the coming years.”

We are pleased to announce UtilitySat, the world’s first multi-mission geostationary satellite, which we will launch at the end of this year.

This is the first of its kind. And a new product line – providing on-demand connectivity for disaster relief, bridging capacity and other missions… pic.twitter.com/8tJS5fDPcE

— John Gedmark (@Gedmark) 9 August 2023