TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — SpaceX launched an Intelsat satellite mission from Florida early Friday.
The company targeted Friday for the launch of the Intelsat IS-40e mission to a geosynchronous transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off at 12:30 a.m.
According to Intelsat, the mission will provide “focused coverage” over North America for commercial aviation, maritime, land mobility and networked customers. The satellite will monitor and track air pollution across North America with NASA’s hosted payload Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO).
SpaceX said the Falcon 9 first-stage booster supporting this mission previously launched CRS-26, OneWeb Launch 16, and one Starlink mission.
After stage separation, Falcon 9 successfully landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean, SpaceX said on Twitter. The company confirmed deployment of the Intelsat IS-40e satellite at 1:03 a.m.
