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.
CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, FL – A clandestine spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) took flight in an absolutely delightful dead of night early Wednesday, July 30 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Florida’s Space Coast. Liftoff of the clandestine NROL-95 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) took place early Thursday, July 30 at 3:10 a.m.
TITUSVILLE, FL – On July 23, I was interviewed live on FOX 13 Tampa Bay about the 2nd attempt to launch the 13th SpaceX Starship test flight from Starbase, Texas shortly before the then planned liftoff on July 23. Bad weather intervened and SpaceX then rescheduled the liftoff to July 24 The first attempt to launch Starship 13th test flight
