SpaceX launches $90 million NASA TEMPO Maxar satellite to track air pollution in North America

SpaceX completed its 23rd successful launch since the beginning of 2023. Falcon 9 rocket launches Intelsat40e satellite into orbit

Maxar Technologies company.

What is known

The launch took place on April 7 at 07:30 (EET).It was the fourth launch for the first stage, which returned to Earth and landed in the Atlantic Ocean. There, the unmanned platform A Shortfall Of Gravitas was waiting for her. This happened 9 minutes after launch.

About half an hour after the launch of Intelsat40ewas carried by the upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket to its destination, from where it continued on its own. The satellite is located at an altitude of 36,000 km from the equator. Its position relative to the Earth will not change. This will allow the spacecraft to take images over North America.

For pollution recognition, Intelsat40e wasequipped with a Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) module. It was developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in collaboration with Ball Aerospace. The space agency will pay $210 million for the program, although the instrument itself costs $90 million.

TEMPO will operate for a minimum of 20 months. At least, the main mission of the module is designed for such a period. As for the Intelsat40e satellite, its service life is expected to be 15 years.