Hispasat’s Amazonas Nexus launched
February 7, 2023
By Chris Forrester
SpaceX delivered a textbook launch of Hispasat’s Amazonas Nexus in the early hours of February 7th (at 03.32 GMT). The satellite, weighing some 4500 kgs, will serve Hispasat’s Americas clients. The satellite also carries an additional element to serve the US Space Agency in the form of a “high-bandwidth protected communications transponder” as part of the military’s Pathfinder 2 mission.
Some 8.5 minutes after launch the Falcon 9’s booster made one of its usual landings on the floating drone ship ‘Just Read the Instructions’ waiting down range. The booster had already been used to launch SES-22, the Hakuto-R moon lander for Tokyo-based company ispace and three batches of SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites. The landing was the 170th overall for SpaceX’s orbital missions.
SpaceX’s launch takes Amazonas Nexus onward towards its geostationary transfer orbit. The satellite, built by Thales Alenia Space and powered by electric thrusters will now take around 5-6 months to get to its orbital position.
Amazonas Nexus “will cover the entire American continent, Greenland and the North and South Atlantic corridors and will be focused on connectivity services in remote areas and in air and maritime mobility environments,” stated Hispasat.
The satellite was later confirmed to be functioning nominally.