NEXT SPACEFLIGHT

Status

Success

425 Project Flight 1 & Rideshares

Launch Time
Fri Dec 01, 2023 18:19 UTC

Rocket

Falcon 9 Block 5
Image Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX
Status: Active
Price: $69.75 million
Liftoff Thrust: 7,607 kN
Payload to LEO: 22,800 kg
Payload to GTO: 8,300 kg
Stages: 2
Strap-ons: 0
Rocket Height: 70.0 m
Fairing Diameter: 5.2 m
Fairing Height: 13.0 m

Vehicles

Landing Zone 4

B1061

Flight #17
41 day turnaround
261st Falcon recovery attempt
249th successful Falcon recovery
176th consecutive successful Falcon landing and recovery

Mission Details

425 Project Flight 1

Launch of the first satellite in a contract of 5 reconnaissance satellites for the South Korean Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), with 1 satellite featuring an electro-optical infrared (EO/IR) telescope. The other 4 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites are to be launched at a later date.

They will be launched to low Earth orbit between 600 and 700 km by 2025, enabling South Korea’s military to observe the nuclear-armed neighbor’s key military facilities every two hours with 30-50 centimeters resolution imagery, according to a 2019 report produced by the Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning.

The project is led by the Korean Agency for Defense Development (ADD) and Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), with input from Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), Hanwha Systems, and Thales Alenia Space.

Payloads: 1
Total Mass: 800.0 kg
Sun-Synchronous Orbit

Hitchhicking payloads

* EIRSAT-1, Ireland's first satellite, is a 2U cubesat by University College Dublin and Queen’s University Belfast that carries a gamma-ray detector and an experiment of thermal coatings for other spacecraft.

Payloads: 24
Sun-Synchronous Orbit

Location

SLC-4E, Vandenberg SFB, California, USA

Stats

2023

194th orbital launch attempt

SpaceX

292nd mission
88th mission of 2023
286th successful mission
258th consecutive successful mission

Falcon 9

279th mission
84th mission of 2023
276th successful mission
250th consecutive successful mission