SpaceX launches military satellite for South Korea
SpaceX launched a South Korean communications satellite on Monday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and to do it SpaceX used the same booster that just a few months ago jettisoned astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley for the first crewed launch from American soil in almost a decade.
The ANASIS-II, the first dedicated communications satellite built for the South Korean government, was subcontracted by Lockheed Martin and manufactured by aerospace company Airbus. The satellite lifted off at 5:30 p.m. aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
About 8 minutes after launch, SpaceX successfully landed the booster on its “Just Read the Instructions” drone ship to be used again for future missions.
The booster was last used during the historic May 30 launch of Behnken and Hurley to the International
Space Station. They’re tentatively scheduled to splash down back to Earth on Aug. 2.
In a translated video message an official from South Korea’s Agency for Defense Development said the satellite will play a critical role in “maintaining peace” and will help the country to advance its information technology capabilities.
SpaceX originally had planned to launch the satellite on July 13, but the mission was twice delayed to take a closer look at and possibly swap
SpaceX has recently had to also delay other missions multiple times, including one of its Starlink launches that have been sending batches of small satellites into low Earth orbit to set up a system that can provide global internet coverage.
out some
hardware.