WASHINGTON, 2nd July, 2025 (WAM) -- A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Tuesday launched an advanced European weather satellite and aced its landing on a ship at sea.
The Falcon 9 lifted off from historic Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, carrying the MTG-Sounder (MTG-S1) satellite toward geostationary transfer orbit.
The rocket's first stage came back to Earth as planned about 8.5 minutes later, touching down on the SpaceX drone ship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
MTG-S1 will use its infrared sounder instrument "to capture data on temperature, humidity, wind and trace gases that are used to generate 3D maps of the atmosphere, improving the accuracy of MTG's weather prediction," European Space Agency (ESA) officials said in a mission description.
The satellite "will provide coverage of Europe and part of northern Africa on a repeat cycle of 15 minutes, providing meteorologists with a complete weather picture of the region, complementing data on cloud formation and lightning from MTG-I," they added.