The Falcon 9 payload Telstar 18 Vantage separated from the upper stage 32 minutes after liftoff and entered its planned geostationary transfer orbit.
Telstar 18 Vantage will provide Ku-band high-throughput spots over Indonesia and Malaysia and five additional Ku-band beams.
Telstar 18 Vantage will provide C-band capacity over the Asia Pacific region.
Telstar 18 Vantage will operate from 138 degrees east in geostationary orbit, replacing the existing Telstar 18.
APT Satellite of Hong Kong paid $118,800,000 for 57.5 percent of Telstar 18 Vantage’s capacity, making it the satellite’s biggest customer.
Telstar 18 Vantage is a high-throughput satellite and is the second Telesat spacecraft launched by SpaceX that summer following the 2018-07-22 launch of Telstar 19 Vantage on another Falcon 9 Block 5 from the same launch pad.
The Falcon 9 first-stage booster used on the 2019-01-11 mission previously launched in September with Telesat’s Telstar 18 Vantage communications satellite.
SpaceX used the same Falcon 9 booster to launch 60 Starlink satellites in May 2019, 10 Iridium Next satellites for Iridium in January 2019, and Telesat Canada’s Telstar 18 Vantage in September 2018.
The Falcon 9 first stage that landed first flew in 2018-09-01 launching the Telstar 18 Vantage satellite, flew the final Iridium mission in 2019-01-01, and launched four Starlink missions beginning in 2019-05-01, most recently on 2020-08-18.
The booster that completed its ninth flight on 2021-05-04 previously launched the Telstar 18 Vantage communications satellite, a set of Iridium satellites, and six other Starlink missions.