SpaceX successfully launches SXM-8 satellite into orbit

The American company SpaceX on Sunday carried out the launch of the Falcon 9 carrier rocket with the SXM-8 relay satellite. The launch took place on June 6 at 00:26 East Coast time (07:26 Moscow time) from the Cape Canaveral space center (Florida). The broadcast was conducted on the company's website. This is reported by TASS.

31 minutes and 52 seconds after the launch, the satellite was successfully launched into orbit. "The separation of the cargo has been confirmed," one of the launch operators said during the broadcast.

The first stage of the Falcon 9, which was previously used twice to deliver Crew Dragon ships to orbit, a few minutes after launch in automatic mode, smoothly descended to the Just Read the Instructions floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean. The technology of multiple use of rocket stages allows the company to reduce the cost of the next launch vehicles.

The SXM-8 satellite, manufactured by Maxar Technologies for SiriusXM broadcasting company with an audience of more than 34 million people, is designed to broadcast radio programs in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. Space successfully launched a similar spacecraft, the SXM-7, into orbit last December. However, later the satellite had a technical malfunction, and communication with it was lost.