Edhat Staff
Update by the edhat staff
December 1, 2023
SpaceX had a successful Falcon 9 launch of the Korea 425 mission to low-Earth orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Friday.
The rocket departed from Space Launch Complex 4 East at 10:19 a.m.
There are a total of 25 spacecraft on board this mission, including KOREA’s 425, Space BD’s ISL48, SITAEL’s microHETSat, D-Orbit’s ION SCV Daring Diego, York Space Systems’ Bane, and PlanetIQ’s GNOMES-4.
This is the 17th flight of the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Crew-1, Crew-2, SXM-8, CRS-23, IXPE, Transporter-4, Transporter-5, Globalstar FM15, ISI EROS C-3, and seven Starlink missions.
Following stage separation, the first stage landed on Landing Zone 4 at Vandenberg Space Force Base, completing SpaceX’s 250th landing of a Falcon first stage booster.
Watch the liftoff below:
Watch Falcon 9 launch the Korea 425 mission to orbit https://t.co/B75A0jWws6
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 1, 2023
Update by the edhat staff
November 28, 2023
The Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base has been rescheduled.
The new launch date is expected to be Friday, December 1, at 10:04 a.m.
A rocket launch is scheduled to liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Wednesday morning.
The Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to depart from the south base at 10:04 a.m.
This will launch the 425 Project EO/IR satellite 1 reconnaissance satellite for South Korea. The satellite is the first of five missions planned by the country’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) for a program known as the ‘425 Project’.
Also onboard is EIRSAT-1, Ireland’s first satellite, a 2U cubesat which was funded by the Education Office of the European Space Agency.
Weather permitting, the launch could be visible for up to 100 miles.
This is good to hear – we heard a very loud bang a few minutes after all the usual rumbling was done, and I was worried that something had gone wrong, as we don’t normally hear that. Anyone know what that was?
That was the return of the booster stage for landing at Vandenberg.
Momma – That was a sonic boom produced by the first stage booster descending for a landing back at Vandenberg.
We don’t often hear one that loud because most of the booster landings occur on a drone ship in the Pacific.