SiriusXM’s SXM-9 satellite goes live
January 31, 2025
By Chris Forrester
US pay-radio operator SiriusXM has brought into use its latest satellite SXM-9. The craft was built by Maxar Space System at its Palo Alto facility. SXM-9 has completed its orbital testing phase after being launched on December 5 2024.
“SiriusXM is committed to cutting-edge technology and enhancing the proprietary satellite delivery systems that help power our audio entertainment and information service offerings,” said Bridget Neville, SiriusXM’s Senior Vice President & GM of Signal Distribution Engineering. “The successful implementation of SXM-9 and expected launches of SXM-10, -11 and -12 will strengthen the health of our satellite fleet for decades to come and allow our team to continue innovating far into the future.”
SXM-9 will help provide continuous reliable delivery of SiriusXM’s audio entertainment and information services to consumers in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico. SXM-9 is the tenth high-powered, digital audio radio satellite built by Maxar Space Systems for SiriusXM and is built on the Maxar 1300 platform. SXM-9 is more than 27 feet tall and over 100 feet long with its solar arrays deployed, and weighed almost 6,400 kg at launch. SXM-9 features a large unfurlable S-band reflector antenna supplied by L3Harris that enables SiriusXM programming to reach approximately 167 million SiriusXM-equipped vehicles on the road today.
SiriusXM and Maxar Space Systems previously announced that Maxar Space has been commissioned to build the SXM-10, -11 and -12 satellites for SiriusXM, and those programmes are ongoing with the expected launch of SXM-10 to occur later this year.