SpaceX Falcon 9 launches Italian radar satellite after 4 delays; deployment confirmed

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was finally launched on Monday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 6:11 PM EST after facing a delay of four days. Elon Musk’s aerospace company had initially planned to launch its Falcon 9’s CSG-2 mission on Thursday but was forced to halt it due to bad weather. Then, on Friday, SpaceX fueled the rocket but the mission was still called off the launch due to thick clouds and strong winds.

The launch scheduled on Sunday was also forced to be postponed because a cruiser ship wandered into the "no-go zone" downrange of Cape Canaveral. However, on Monday, SpaceX successfully caught its window and sent the COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation FM2 satellite run by the Italian Space Agency into orbit. The ship couldn't be moved on time for the Falcon 9 to hit its window.

It is also the second of four new satellites to replace an original four which were launched from 2007-2010 that provide defence, environmental and other observations for Italy and surrounding nations in the Mediterranean regions. SpaceX confirmed the mission in an official statement saying, “Falcon 9 launched the COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation FM2 mission to low Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.”

“This was the third launch and landing of this booster, which previously supported the launch of Arabsat-6A and STP-2,” SpaceX added. 

Fourth SpaceX launch from Space Coast

It is to note that Falcon 9’s Monday launch marked the fourth liftoff of the company from the Space Coast this month with the fifth on tap from neighbouring Kennedy Space Center set for Tuesday. The Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation program is a collaboration among the Italian Space Agency, the Italian Ministry of Defence and the Italian Ministry of education, Universities and Scientific Research. Falcon 9 delivered the mission into a low orbit that consisted of two satellites studying the Earth by using synthetic aperture radar (SAR).

According to Space.com, the first CSG craft was launched into orbit in December 2019 on French Guiana atop an Arianespace Soyuz rocket. The satellites circle the planet over the poles at an altitude of 385 miles and it was also the same orbit that CSG-2 was headed for after finally getting off the ground.

(Image: @SpaceX/Twitter)