(Image Credit: Iridium Communications)
After a little hiatus around the holidays – always a packed time – the Gazette is back to bring you space news and 4th planetary highlights to help you make your colonization plans! This post doesn’t come to you with very much time to spare, but SpaceX is at it again, this time with their first launch of 2019 nearly upon us! It’s another landmark flight for the disruptive upstart company, as it will mark the 8th and final launch of this important contract to place 75 Iridium NEXT satellites (numbers 66-75 on this round) into orbit.
The booster is B1049.2, which previously hefted the Telstar VANTAGE satellite into geostationary orbit and then executed a perfect touchdown landing on Of Course I Still Love You. The launch is planned for:
January 11th at 10:31am Eastern time / 7:31am Pacific
from Vandenberg Air Force Base, pad SLC-4E, with recovery planned by autonomous drone ship Just Read the Instructions.
So – set your alarms, and get ready for the first of many amazing launches for this new year!
Check out the Press Kit for more details about tomorrow’s planned launch, and of course the excellent mission patch!
And Iridium apparently put together a Launch Soundtrack – enjoy!
References:
- SpaceX Mission Page
- Iridium NEXT homepage
- Iridium – Launch Soundtrack