NAOS: SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches Luxembourg's Earth-imaging Satellite, 7 Others, In Rideshare mission

SpaceX successfully launched the Falcon 9 rocket on Tuesday(Aug. 26), at 1853 UTC from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, deploying the OHB Italia’s NAOS (National Advanced Optical System) spacecraft and seven other rideshare satellites into orbit.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster B1063 landed as planned about 8 minutes after liftoff on Landing Zone 4 marking its 27th flight. Its previous missions include like NASA's DART spacecraft and the Transporter-7 rideshare. The Falcon 9 upper stage deployed the NAOS about 12 minutes into the flight as planned, with Pelican-3 and Pelican-4 following a few minutes later. The other secondary payloads were deployed about 69 minutes after liftoff.

The primary payload, NAOS, is the first Earth observation satellite for Luxembourg, forming the space component of the Luxembourg Earth Observation System (LUXEOSys). It is a 800 kg satellite built by OHB Italia, equipped with a high-resolution optical camera capable of 50 cm ground resolution, designed to operate in a 450 km sun-synchronous polar orbit.

The satellite, which was transported from OHB Italia's facilities to the Airbus Space Test Facility in Toulouse for environmental testing in May 2023, is intended to provide high-resolution imagery for national defense, civil applications, and international partners like NATO.

The mission also carried seven secondary payloads: Dhruva Space's LEAP-1, Planet's Pelican-3 and Pelican-4, and Exolaunch's Acadia-6, FFLY-1, FFLY-2, and FFLY-3.

LEAP-1 (or Launching Expeditions for Aspiring Payloads-1), India's first commercial satellite from a startup, includes an advanced AI module and a hyperspectral imager. It is comprised of two demonstrations, including an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) module and a hyperspectral imager.

Planet's Pelican-3 and Pelican-4 are part of the company's Earth-imaging constellation, designed for multispectral imaging.

The Acadia and FFLY nanosats are also commercial observation platforms, the former is a synthetic aperture radar platform for Capella Space, and the latter -- Exolaunch's FFLY-1, FFLY-2, and FFLY-3 are Pixxel's high-frequency hyperspectral imaging platforms.

The NAOS mission was originally scheduled for launch on an Arianespace Vega-C rocket in late 2023 but was delayed due to the Vega-C's VV22 failure in December 2022. Luxembourg subsequently shifted the 382 million euro mission to SpaceX's Falcon 9.

The launch was initially planned for October 2024 to January 2025 but was rescheduled to August 2025.

The NAOS mission marked SpaceX's 104th Falcon 9 launch of 2025 and the 522nd overall since 2010.