Ovzon 3 Mission: SpaceX Launches Swedish Satellite To Geostationary Orbit

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Ovzon 3 satellite lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station tonight at 2304 UTC, on Jan. 3.

The Falcon 9's reusable first stage returned to Earth, touching down back at Cape Canaveral about eight minutes after liftoff. It was the 10th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description.

The Falcon 9's upper stage, meanwhile, continued carrying Ovzon 3 skyward. It deployed the satellite in geosynchronous transfer orbit about 38.5 minutes after launch as planned, SpaceX announced in a post on X. Ovzon 3 will continue its maneuvers to place itself in Geostationary orbit.

Ovzon 3 is the first privately funded and developed Swedish geostationary satellite. It is a communications satellite which will cover 1/3 of the Earth via its steerable spot beams, meeting the demand for better mobile broadband coverage in under-served regions.

Geostationary orbit lies about 35,700 kilometers above Earth. At this altitude, orbital speed matches our planet's rotational speed, allowing satellites to "hover" over the same patch of ground continuously.

This is SpaceX's second launch of the day. The rocket company launched its own Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit early in the morning.

WATCH SpaceX Falcon 9 launch Ovzon 3 satellite to Geostationary orbit