SpaceX launches Eutelsat 10B communications satellite (video)

SpaceX launched a communications satellite to space Tuesday (Nov. 22) to serve air and sea traffic.

SpaceX used a Falcon 9 rocket to launch the Eutelsat 10B satellite on behalf of Eutelsat Tuesday (Nov. 22) at 9:57 p.m. EST (0257 on Nov. 23 GMT). 

This was the 11th launch for this Falcon 9 first stage, according to SpaceX.

"The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched Telstar 18 Vantage, Iridium-8 and eight Starlink missions," SpaceX wrote in a mission description. (Starlink is SpaceX's series of internet satellites, with more than 3,000 currently active in orbit.)

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There will be no further flights for the Falcon 9's first stage, however; the booster did not come back to Earth for a landing.

The Falcon 9's upper stage deployed Eutelsat 10B as planned into a geostationary transfer orbit about 35.5 minutes after liftoff. The satellite will nowmake its own way to a geosynchronous orbit, meaning that it will orbit the Earth in such a way to consistently gaze at one part of the planet below.

Eutelsat 10B includes a high-capacity communications payload in the Ku-band "in the busiest air and sea traffic zones" over the North Atlantic, Europe, the Mediterranean basin and the Middle East, Eutelsat officials wrote of the mission. A second Ku-band payload will be available for the Atlantic Ocean, Africa and the Indian Ocean.

The satellite also carries two widebeam C- and Ku-band payloads for existing customers upon Eutelsat 10A, Eutelsat officials stated. The new satellite will replace the 12-year-old Eutelsat 10A, which is expected to enter its end of service in 2023 for customers in the Americas and Asia.

Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of "Why Am I Taller?" (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a book about space medicine. Follow her on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.