SpaceX to launch Falcon 9 with Israeli communications satellite
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled for launch at 12:31 a.m. July 13 from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, according to Florida Today.
SpaceX calls the mission "Commercial GTO 1." The company hasn't used that term before in a mission name. GTO usually means geostationary transfer orbit, an elliptical orbit used to send a payload to geostationary orbit. That means the satellite will orbit with Earth but will look stationary.
This flight will deliver the Dror-1, a geostationary communications satellite by Israel Aerospace Industries that's designed to meet the satellite communication needs of Israel for the next 15 years.
Dror-1 uses mostly local Israeli technologies developed at IAI.
The rocket's booster will land on a SpaceX drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean, so no sonic boom is expected along Florida's Space Coast.
This will be SpaceX's 519th mission, and its 85th of 2025. It's Falcon 9's 503rd mission.
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