SXM-7: SpaceX launches 25th Falcon 9 launch of the year
December 13, 2020
Two days after a last-second scrub, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with the SiriusXM-7 (SXM-7) high power broadcasting satellite. The Falcon 9 lofted SXM-7 to a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO).
The SXM-7 mission will continue to break records SpaceX set in 2018. With 21 launches in 2018, SpaceX broke that record with the Sentinel-6A Michael Freilich mission in November 2020. The SXM-7 mission will mark the 25th flight of the year for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
Payload and mission prep:
SXM-7 is one of two satellites to replace the aging XM-3 and XM-4 crafts that were launched in 2005 and 2006, respectively. Both satellites used the Boeing 702HP satellite bus and were launched on the Zenit 3(SL) rocket from the Sea Launch Ocean Platform in the Pacific Ocean.