SpaceX moves Thuraya-4 launch try to Friday night from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

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First launch of 2025: SpaceX is now targeting a four-hour window that opens at 8:27 p.m. EST Friday — 24 hours later than initially anticipated — to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The Falcon 9 will deploy the Space42 Thuraya-4 geostationary telecommunications satellite after lifting off from Launch Complex 40.

"Thuraya 4-NGS is a communication satellite being built by Airbus Defense and Space for the UAE based Yahsat," the Space Coast Office of Tourism reported on its website.

"Based on the all-electric Airbus Eurostar-Neo Platform, Thuraya 4-NGS will incorporate a large 12-meter L-band antenna and a payload with on-board processing providing advanced routing flexibility of up to 3200 channels with dynamic power allocation over a large number of spot beams," the website said.

No Central Florida sonic booms are expected during the Thuraya-4 mission. Rather, after soaring skyward along a due east trajectory, the rocket's first-stage booster will target landing aboard a SpaceX drone ship out at sea about eight minutes after liftoff.

The Cape's first mission of the new year comes on the heels of a record-breaking 2024, where an unprecedented 93 orbital rockets took flightduring the calendar year. That total blew past 2023's short-lived record of 72 annual launches.

Looking beyond Thuraya-4, SpaceX is targeting its next Starlink broadband satellite launch for Sunday afternoon from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, per the FAA. That Starlink 6-71 launch window extends from 12:10 p.m. to 4:41 p.m.

And space fans continue waiting for Blue Origin to announce a launch date for the first-ever flight of its New Glenn rocket. An FAA launch window is listed for early Monday morning, but no launch date has been finalized.

Quelle: Florida Today

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Update: 4.01.2025

THURAYA 4 MISSION

On Friday, January 3 at 8:27 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched the Space42 Thuraya 4 mission to a geosynchronous transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

This was the 20th flight for the Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched SES-22, ispace's HAKUTO-R MISSION 1, Amazonas-6, CRS-27, Bandwagon-1, GSAT-20, and 13 Starlink missions.