Update Sept. 11, 10:44 p.m. EDT: SpaceX successfully deployed the Nusantara Lima satellite
Update Sept. 10, 5:55 p.m. EDT: SpaceX scrubbed the mission, targeting no earlier than Sept. 11.
SpaceX succeeded in launching a communications satellite from an Indonesian company following three days of mission scrubs. Possible technical issues got in the way of a launch attempt Wednesday evening after back-to-back days of weather delays on Monday and Tuesday.
Less than 30 minutes after liftoff, the Nusantara Lima (N5) satellite was deployed into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. It’s the latest satellite from Pasifik Satelit Nusantara (PSN).
SpaceX was able to launch from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday, Sept. 11, at 9:56 p.m. EDT (0156 UTC), the end of the launch window. The rocket flew due east upon departure from Florida’s Space Coast.
On Wednesday, the 45th Weather Squadron forecast a 45 percent chance of liftoff during the window. Meteorologists said the front that has been moving across the Deep South is trending towards South Florida, but “high moisture” is still hanging around further north with the “true dry boundary lingering across North Florida.”
“This combined with a low-level northeastward fetch is producing showers along the Brevard Coastline. We can expect similar conditions with periods of rain to linger in the forecast through Thursday and Friday despite the southward position of the front,” launch weather officers said. “However, the drier air will lead to lower shower and storm coverage overall, creating more optimistic launch conditions. The main watch items will be coastal showers moving from the northeast, possibly becoming cumulus cloud and surface electric field violators as they move ashore.”
SpaceX launched the N5 satellite using its Falcon 9 rocket with a veteran first stage booster: B1078. This was the booster’s 23rd flight, following a variety of missions, including NASA’s Crew-6, USSF-124 and ASTSpaceMobile’s BlueBird 1-5 satellites.
After boosting the rocket out of the lower atmosphere, B1078 landed on the drone ship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas,’ in the Atlantic Ocean. This successful landing represented the 124th recovery for that vessel and 503rd booster landing to date for SpaceX.
Reaching more people
The N5 satellite was announced back in 2022, which was designed to help augment the connectivity provided to resident of Indonesia and the surrounding areas by the Satria-1 satellite. N5 was originally planned to launch in 2023 along with Satria-1, but it was delayed.
Spaceflight Now reached out to PSN regarding the delay prior to the first launch attempt on Monday, but hasn’t received a response.
The satellite is built on the same Boeing-built bus used on Intelsat’s IS-33e spacecraft, which suffered an anomaly on Oct. 19, 2024, resulting in the “total loss” of the spacecraft, which fragmented into dozens of pieces. The satellite was launched in August 2016 and entered service in January 2017.
The root cause of the anomaly was not announced publicly.
The N5 satellite was built on Boeing Space Systems’ 702MP VHTS (Very High Throughput Satellite) bus and is designed to offer a capacity of 160 Gbps with its 101 Ka-band spot beam. It’s built to have a greater than 15-year operating life.
N5 should reach its operating orbit at 113 degrees East over the Equator sometime around mid-January with service expected to begin in early 2026.
source: spaceflightnow.com