SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 5 from Cape Canaveral, USA at 2104 GMT on 8 June 2022. The launch vehicle carried Nilesat 301, an Egyptian telecommunication satellite on its way to its geostationary operational orbit.
To save fuel for its later inclination removal during its orbital circularisation, the satellite was actually injected into a “super-synchronous” transfer orbit of 44.880 x 310 km (at an inclination of 18.6 degrees). This has an apogee about 9,000 km higher than that of a normal Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) which has the same apogee as the eventual GEO. The spacecraft will eventually be stationed over seven degrees East longitude.
The 4.1 metric ton Nilesat 301 uses the Thales Alenia Space Spacebus-4000B2 bus design.
The reusable B1062 first stage, on its seventh launch, successfully landed on the drone ship “Just Read the Instructions” stationed downrange in the Atlantic.
Jonathan Freeman contributed to this report.