Picture perfect blastoff SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying European weather satellite MTG-S1 for EUMETSAT to GTO at 5:04 PM EDT from Launch Complex 39A from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 1, 2025. As seen from Space View Park, Titusville, FL. Credit: Ken Kremer/ SpaceUpClose.com
SPACE VIEW PARK, TITUSVILLE, FL – Spectators enjoyed a picture-perfect blastoff of a SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying European weather satellite MTG-S1 for the European Organization for the Exploration of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) at 5:04 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 1, 2025.
Picture perfect blastoff SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying European weather satellite MTG-S1 for EUMETSAT to GTO at 5:04 PM EDT from Launch Complex 39A from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 1, 2025. As seen from Space View Park, Titusville, FL. Credit: Ken Kremer/ SpaceUpClose.com
This Meteosat Third Generation Sounder (MTG-S1) satellite was carried to a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) so that it can be moved to operate in a geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) approx. 36,000 km (22,369 mi) above the equator.
Picture perfect blastoff SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying European weather satellite MTG-S1 for EUMETSAT to GTO at 5:04 PM EDT from Launch Complex 39A from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 1, 2025. As seen from Space View Park, Titusville, FL. Credit: Ken Kremer/ SpaceUpClose.com
We watched from Space View Park in Titusville, FL
Enjoy our photos for Space UpClose
Picture perfect blastoff SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying European weather satellite MTG-S1 for EUMETSAT to GTO at 5:04 PM EDT from Launch Complex 39A from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 1, 2025. As seen from Space View Park, Titusville, FL. Credit: Ken Kremer/ SpaceUpClose.com
MTG-S1 will eventually be used to augment both weather monitoring and assessments of air quality and pollution for Europe and North Africa.
The Meteosat Third Generation Sounder, MTG-S1, along with the Copernicus Sentinel-4 instrument pictured inside the cleanroom of OHB in Bremen, Germany on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Image: ESA/M. Pédoussaut
The SpaceX mission launched on their Falcon 9 first stage booster tail number B1085.9 thus on its 9th times to space and back. Previous missions included NASA’s Crew-9, Fram2 and Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1.
F9 landed successfully on the JRTI droneship “Just Read the Instructions’ eight and a half minutes later.
This marked the 127th landing on JRTI and the 471st booster landing to date.
Picture perfect blastoff SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying European weather satellite MTG-S1 for EUMETSAT to GTO at 5:04 PM EDT from Launch Complex 39A from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 1, 2025. As seen from Space View Park, Titusville, FL. Credit: Ken Kremer/ SpaceUpClose.com
Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite coverage of NASA, SpaceX, ULA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and more space and mission reports direct from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news. Dr. Kremer is a research scientist and journalist based in the KSC area, active in outreach and interviewed regularly on TV and radio about space topics. Ken’s photos are for sale and he is available for lectures and outreach events.
JETTY PARK, FL – After multiple delays due to both Earth and Space Weather the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket launched for only its second launch and achieved a history making landing of the reusable first stage on a droneship waiting at sea – while accomplishing its primary goal of hurling NASA’s twin ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – For only its second launch, the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket is now poised for liftoff on Nov. 9 after NASA’s twin ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) Mars Orbiters were integrated with the rocket following a successful static fire test last week and the integrated stack was rolled out to pad 36. Liftoff
