COSMO-SkyMed 2G: SpaceX Launches Italian Earth-observing Satellite

SpaceX launched the COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation Flight Model 3 (CSG-FM3) satellite at 0209 UTC (on Jan. 3) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The Falcon 9 rocket carried the 1,700-kg satellite for the Italian Space Agency and the Italian Ministry of Defence, designed for dual civilian and military Earth observation using synthetic aperture radar to provide high-resolution imaging day or night, regardless of weather conditions.

The Falcon 9's first stage, booster B1081, completed its 21st flight and landed safely at Landing Zone 4 at Vandenberg about 8.5 minutes after liftoff, while about 4.5 minutes later, the second stage deployed the satellite into a low Earth orbit at an altitude of 620 km and an inclination of 97.8 degrees.

The COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation constellation, consisting of four satellites, aims to support applications such as emergency prevention, environmental monitoring, defense, maritime surveillance, and agriculture management, with the satellite’s planned end-of-life date set for December 2032.

COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation is a small network designed to "monitor the Earth for the sake of emergency prevention, strategy, scientific and commercial purposes, providing data on a global scale to support a variety of applications," according to a European Space Agency.

Among those applications are "risk management, cartography, forest & environment protection, natural resources exploration, land management, defense and security, maritime surveillance, food & agriculture management," the explainer adds.

The spacecraft will study Earth using synthetic aperture radar, gathering data at all times of day and in all weather conditions from an altitude of 620 km.

Three COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation satellites have now launched to date. The first one flew in December 2019 atop a Soyuz rocket, and the second lifted off in January 2022 on a Falcon 9.

The mission marked the first launch of 2026 for SpaceX and the global space community, following two previous scrubbed attempts on December 27 and 28 due to a ground systems issue with the launch pad hold-down clamps. The company launched a whopping 165 orbital missions in 2025 — far more than any other entity, either commercial or governmental.