National Space Society Congratulates SpaceX on First Successful GEO Transfer Mission

The Washington DC-based National Space Society (NSS) congratulates Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) on the successful launch of the SES-8 telecommunications  satellite.  It was launched Tuesday, December 3, 2013 from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 5:41 PM Eastern Time.

The SES-8 is a GEOStar-2 satellite built by Orbital Sciences.  The hybrid Ku- and Ka-band spacecraft weighs 3,138 kg (6,918 lbs) and will provide communications coverage of the South Asia and Asia Pacific regions.

This is the first mission to geo-synchronous orbit for SpaceX, and the second flight of the Falcon 9 v1.1.  The upgraded version of the Falcon 9 has 60% more thrust than the Falcon 9 v1.0, and can loft payloads of up to 4,950 kg (10,690 lb) to geostationary transfer orbit.

Bruce Pittman, NSS Senior Vice President, said, “This milestone injects a new US competitor into the international commercial satcom launch market, and is an important step toward lowering the cost of access to space, which in turn will help drive space development and settlement.”

This flight of the Falcon v1.1 represents a major step forward commercially for SpaceX, and also demonstrates progress toward the certification of the Falcon 9 for Department of Defense payloads. Critical to geostationary transfer missions, for the first time the upgraded Falcon 9 second stage re-ignited for a 5-minutes 20-seconds burn to put the SES-8 into the correct orbit. SES is the world’s second largest telecommunications satellite company, fielding 54 geostationary satellites.