7.09.2025
SpaceX targeting Monday night to launch Indonesian satellite from Cape Canaveral, Florida
Potential "jellyfish effect" launch alert: SpaceX may propel a Falcon 9 rocket into flight shortly after sunset Monday, Sept. 8, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Sunset will occur at 7:35 p.m. Monday at the Cape, according to The Old Farmer's Almanac. Soon afterward, SpaceX is targeting a 116-minute launch window that opens at 8:02 p.m. and ends at 9:58 p.m.
The photogenic space jellyfish phenomenon happens when ground level is darkened just before sunrise or just after sunset but the ascending rocket's vapor plume is illuminated by sunlight streaming through the upper reaches of the atmosphere.
The 230-foot Falcon 9 will lift off from Launch Complex 40, then deploy the Nusantara Lima communications satellite in geosynchronous transfer orbit for Pasifik Satelit Nusantara, Indonesia's first satellite-based private telecommunications company.
Boeing built the satellite, which is scheduled to enter commercial service early next year and provide broadband internet, phone service and emergency communications across Indonesia and neighboring countries in Southeast Asia.
"Why it matters: Indonesia’s more than 17,000 islands make it nearly impossible to connect everyone with fiber or cell towers," an Aug. 7 Boeing news article said.
The satellite will operate about 22,000 miles above the Earth's surface. In a Boeing press release, PSN Group CEO Adi Rahman Adiwoso said, “this satellite will empower communities, schools, and businesses that have never had reliable access before."
“Boeing’s satellite business has a rich history of serving Indonesia and the Asia Pacific region, dating back to the Palapa A1 satellite in 1976,” Ryan Reid, president of Boeing Satellite Systems International, said in the press release.
The SpaceX launch comes on the heels of Friday's Starlink 10-57 mission, which lifted off at 8:32 a.m. from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
Quelle: Florida Today