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US-Made Falcon 9 Rocket Lifts Spain Radar-Imaging Satellite into Orbit -SpaceX

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – A radar-imaging satellite entered low earth orbit following a flawless liftoff atop a Falcon 9 rocket in a launch broadcast over the internet by the rocket's manufacturer Space X on Thursday.
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"PAZ is intended to not only address security and defense needs, but also other needs of a civilian nature," the Spain-based satellite operator Hisdesat said in a press release ahead of the launch. "It will be able to take over one hundred 1-meter resolution daytime and nighttime images a day in any weather conditions."

Designed for a five-and-half-year mission, PAZ it will orbit the Earth 15 times daily in a quasi-polar orbit that will cover the entire Earth with an average revisit time of 24 hours, the release said.

Spain’s National Institute for Aerospace Technology (INTA) is the satellite's owner, and will be responsible for overseeing its ground control services, the release added.

READ MORE: I Want to Believe: NASA Prepares New Alien-Hunting TESS Satellite for Lift-Off

SpaceX first announced Starlink internet constellation in 2015. The project with the help of satellites in place of traditional infrastructure will provide high-speed wideband internet access around the world.

SpaceX's filings with the US Federal Communications Commission point out that the constellation will be used for fixed satellite services (FSS), such as backhaul for transmitting data around the globe. The space-based architecture could be used to assist bring faster internet access to more remote regions of the planet in the future.

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