On Saturday, June 7th, the American space exploration technology company SpaceX successfully launched the latest broadcasting satellite “SXM-10” for SiriusXM, once again demonstrating its mature reusable technology by achieving the offshore recovery of the rocket’s first-stage booster.
The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the SXM-10 satellite lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 12:54 a.m. Eastern Time (4:54 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time). Approximately 8 and a half minutes later, the rocket’s first stage smoothly landed on SpaceX’s autonomous drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” deployed in the Atlantic Ocean, marking the rocket’s eighth successful mission and recovery.
This rocket has been involved in numerous significant missions, including the Crew-9 and Fram2 manned missions, as well as launching two private lunar landers to the moon on January 15th this year. These lunar landers were from the U.S. company Firefly Aerospace and the Japanese company ispace, with Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander successfully landing on the moon on March 2nd, while ispace’s Resilience lander failed to land on June 5th.
The launched satellite is the third generation high-power broadcasting satellite for SiriusXM, manufactured by Maxar Technologies with a weight of approximately 6,400 kilograms. This satellite will further enhance SiriusXM’s audio entertainment and information transmission capabilities in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean region. According to company data, over 165 million vehicles in the United States currently have SiriusXM receivers installed.
Originally scheduled for an 11:19 p.m. launch on the 6th, the launch was delayed multiple times due to thunderstorms and strong winds, with SpaceX ultimately completing the mission after midnight. This also marks SpaceX’s 69th Falcon 9 mission in 2025, with 51 missions dedicated to expanding their Starlink satellite network.
SXM-10 is the second satellite launched by SpaceX for SiriusXM within six months, following the launch of SXM-9 in December 2024. According to the contract, Maxar Technologies will continue manufacturing two more satellites, SXM-11 and SXM-12, to further strengthen SiriusXM’s space communication network.
The next space coast mission is scheduled to begin on June 10th, where SpaceX will conduct a commercial astronaut flight mission for Axiom Space, launching the Dragon spacecraft from the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A to the International Space Station.
(This article was referenced from Space.com and The Florida Today newspaper.)