SpaceX launched the TD7 satellite for operator Optus-X this evening from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center. Liftoff was at 5:28 PM EST into partly cloudy skies just as the sun was officially setting.

Around eight and a half minutes after launching, Booster B1077 completed its sixteenth mission when it touched down safely on SpaceX’s drone ship ‘A Shortfall Of Gravitas.’ The booster and ship will now return to Port Canaveral, where the booster offloaded and returned to the company’s Hangar X facility at Kennedy Space Center. There, it will be inspected and presumably prepared for its next mission.

Not much is known about the payload for this mission other than it was a telecommunications satellite for Australian company Optus. No details on the design or functionality was provided by Optus or SpaceX, though the latter rarely goes into much depth on their customer’s payloads. Optus recently announced that they are now an “authorised reseller of Starlink high-speed, low-latency internet. The new service, which will be called Satellite Internet for business, will offer enterprise and small business customers fast, uncapped, reliable high throughput Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite broadband connectivity regardless of how many employees are at a company.”

Whether today’s launch is at all related to the Starlink deal is unknown.

Launch Replay

By The Numbers

• 110th launch rocket launch this year for SpaceX
• 428th launch all-time for SpaceX
• 21st launch from LC-39A this year
• 372nd Falcon Family Booster landing
• 85th landing on A Shortfall Of Gravitas
• 43rd consecutive successful landing for a Falcon family booster

Next Launch

SpaceX will open the week’s launches tomorrow, Monday 18th with a Falcon 9 carrying the Indian telecommunication satellite, GSAT-20, for New Space India Limited from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral.

• Date: NET November 18, 2024
• Organization: SpaceX / NASA
• Mission: GSAT-20
• Rocket: Falcon 9
• Launch Site: Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral
• Launch Window: 1:31 – 3:20 PM EST
• Payload: Starlink satellites

Keep in mind that launch dates and times change often. Launch attempts can be scrubbed anytime due to weather, technical reasons, or range conditions.