{"id":9804,"date":"2025-07-12T22:20:48","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T14:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-launches-israeli-satellite-on-a-falcon-9-rocket-from-cape-canaveral\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T22:20:48","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T14:20:48","slug":"spacex-launches-israeli-satellite-on-a-falcon-9-rocket-from-cape-canaveral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-launches-israeli-satellite-on-a-falcon-9-rocket-from-cape-canaveral\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX launches Israeli satellite on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_70192\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-70192\" style=\"width: 876px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-70192\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250713_Dror-1_streak.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"876\" height=\"538\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250713_Dror-1_streak.jpg 876w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250713_Dror-1_streak-300x184.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250713_Dror-1_streak-678x416.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250713_Dror-1_streak-768x472.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-70192\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts of from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to begin the Commercial GTO-1 mission, a flight for Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). Image: Adam Bernstein\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket early Sunday carrying the Israeli Dror 1 satellite. The mission was initially shrouded in secrecy as the satellite\u2019s manufacturer, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), shunned any&nbsp; pre-launch publicity.<\/p>\n<p>The mission, referred to by SpaceX as \u2018Commercial GTO-1,\u2019 lifted off at 1:04 a.m. EDT (0504 UTC) on Sunday, July 13.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the secrecy pre-launch, the Falcon 9 payload fairing carried the logo of IAI, a state-owned company owned in Israel. The company finally confirmed the launch of its Dror 1 satellite in a news release, issued several hours after the launch.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe at IAI are extremely proud of the development and successful launch into space of the State of Israel\u2019s \u201cDror 1\u201d national communications satellite,\u201d Boaz Levy, CEO and President of IAI said in a statement. \u201cDror 1 is the most advanced communications satellite ever built in Israel, designed to preserve this national strategic capability in the country while providing Israel with essential satellite communications capabilities for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Smh75rw8piM?si=RrX0qH9FirGqqX47\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>SpaceX used the Falcon 9 booster with the first stage tail number B1083, which flew for a 13th time. Its previous missions included NASA\u2019s Crew-8, Polaris Dawn and CRS-31.<\/p>\n<p>Roughly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1083 landed on SpaceX\u2019s droneship, \u2018Just Read the Instructions.\u2019 This was the 128th touchdown for this vessel and the 474th booster landing to date.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_70193\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-70193\" style=\"width: 876px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-70193\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250713_Dror-1_liftoff.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"876\" height=\"564\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250713_Dror-1_liftoff.jpg 876w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250713_Dror-1_liftoff-300x193.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250713_Dror-1_liftoff-678x437.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250713_Dror-1_liftoff-768x494.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-70193\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts of from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to begin the Commercial GTO-1 mission, a flight for Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). Image: Adam Bernstein\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h4>Pre-launch secrecy<\/h4>\n<p>The veil of secrecy around the mission is not often seen for a commercial SpaceX launch.&nbsp;While rare, the Commercial GTO-1 mission isn\u2019t the first time SpaceX has been asked by a customer to avoid disclosing details publicly. Launches for the National Reconnaissance Office and the U.S. Space Force are often kept under wraps, because of national security reasons.<\/p>\n<p>In November 2024, SpaceX launched a mission simply referred to as TD7. Regulatory filings called the payload \u2018Optus-X,\u2019 which was connected to a company called Optus, a company connected to SingTel Australia Investment Ltd.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX\u2019s webcast ended at the request of the customer following first stage landing.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-70194\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250713_IAI_payload_fairings.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"876\" height=\"491\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250713_IAI_payload_fairings.jpg 876w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250713_IAI_payload_fairings-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250713_IAI_payload_fairings-678x381.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250713_IAI_payload_fairings-768x430.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\"><\/p>\n<p>During the retraction of the strongback at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the Falcon 9 payload fairings showed the logo for Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). SpaceX only referred to the satellite\u2019s owner as \u201cthe customer\u201d during its broadcast. Image: SpaceX via livestreamIAI announced the development of the Dror 1 satellite in January 2020 and said it was designed to operate for 15 years. The satellite was developed by the company\u2019s Systems, Missile and Space Group.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are excited to move forward with Dror 1, the most advanced communication satellite ever built in Israel,\u201d said Boaz Levy, &nbsp;said at the time. \u201cIt will comprise numerous state-of-the-art technologies created here in Israel and contain highly-advanced digital capabilities.<\/p>\n<p>The Dror 1 satellite is designed to operate in geostationary Earth orbit, about 36,000 km in altitude. IAI said its January 2020 press release that the satellite is part of a 2018 Israeli strategy to establish an on orbit communications system designed for its national interests.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis government decision stems from the understanding that the capability for communication independence is of critical national importance, as well as to enable the preservation of the knowledge and expertise that has been accumulated by Israel over the past years,\u201d IAI wrote.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_70189\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-70189\" style=\"width: 825px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-70189\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250712_iai-develop-and-build-dror-1-communication-satellite.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"825\" height=\"515\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250712_iai-develop-and-build-dror-1-communication-satellite.jpg 825w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250712_iai-develop-and-build-dror-1-communication-satellite-300x187.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250712_iai-develop-and-build-dror-1-communication-satellite-678x423.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250712_iai-develop-and-build-dror-1-communication-satellite-768x479.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 825px) 100vw, 825px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-70189\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s rendering of the Israel Aerospace Industries\u2019 (IAI) Dror 1 satellite. Graphic: IAI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>According to a 2020 writeup on the satellite in the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS), a news agency focused on topics concerning Israel and other Jewish people around the world, the four-ton satellite features a number of components from Israel and is designed to be modular in capability, like a smartphone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a fully digital satellite that can upload applications. It can broadcast data from one antenna and receive from another,\u201d said Shlomi Sudri, general manager of IAI\u2019s Space Division, told JNS.<\/p>\n<p>The satellite appears to be part of IAI\u2019s AMOS communications satellite series. These are multi-band satellite buses that are in the 3-6 ton class.<\/p>\n<p>The last AMOS payload built by IAI to be placed atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, AMOS 6, was destroyed when an explosion occurred in the rocket\u2019s upper stage on Sept. 1, 2016 prior to a planned static test fire.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_BgJEXQkjNQ?si=W6mVNRkJHwqcP687\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts of from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to begin the Commercial GTO-1 mission, a flight for Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). Image: Adam Bernstein\/Spaceflight Now SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket early Sunday carrying the Israeli Dror 1 satellite. The mission was initially shrouded in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1050,479,316],"class_list":["post-9804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-commercial-gto-1","tag-falcon-9","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9804"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}