EchoStar-23 launch date slips
March 9, 2017
By Chris Forrester
SpaceX has suffered another delay. It isn’t major and losing another few days beyond an anticipated March 12th launch is not catastrophic, but EchoStar-23 has been waiting patiently for its launch for months.
EchoStar-23 is needed to serve Dish’s Brazilian and Latino customers, and is now expected to launch around March 14th, weather and other variables permitting.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will loft the heavy satellite from launch pad 39A at Cape Canaveral, Florida, into a geosynchronous transfer orbit, and then on to its final orbital slot.
This particular flight will not attempt a re-landing of the rocket’s first stage.
The next flight scheduled is for SES, and that launch will re-use one of the Falcon 9’s recovered first stages.