Falcon 9 Block 5 | Inmarsat-7 F1 (GX-7)
SpaceX launches Falcon 9 Block 5 carrying Inmarsat-7 F1 (GX-7) from Unknown Pad, Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA at 2026-12-31 00:00:00Z. The operator has not published how precise that target time is. The date is still provisional and can move.
COUNTDOWN
FLIGHT PLAN
The window is instantaneous: the vehicle flies at T-0 or stands down to the next opportunity. Current date is a placeholder or rough estimation based on unreliable or interpreted sources.
FIELD KIT / OPTICS
Where to start if the plan is a real telescope in a real back garden.
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Celestron Travel Scope 70 mm Refractor
70 mm of aperture on a light tripod that packs into its own backpack, which is the whole argument for it: a scope that travels gets used. Shows lunar craters, Jupiter's four bright moons and Saturn's rings as a shape rather than a smudge. The tripod is the weak part of the package — expect to steady it.
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Beginner Dobsonians
The category most experienced observers point a beginner at: aperture on a simple rocker mount, with no motors to fail. A starting point for browsing rather than a specific pick — compare 130 mm and 150 mm before buying.
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Beginner refractors
Lighter and quicker to set up than a Dobsonian, weaker on faint deep-sky objects. Worth browsing if the scope has to live in a cupboard and come out on a whim.
BROWSE opens an Amazon search, not a specific recommendation.
LINKS AMAZON.COM
MISSION BRIEF
Inmarsat-7 is the seventh generation of satellites for the London-based global mobile satellite communications operator Inmarsat. The three satellites of the series - GX-7, 8 & 9 - will have an improved fully reconfigurable Ka-band payload for Inmarsat's Global Xpress services. They are optimized for real-time mobility and feature thousands of dynamically-formed beams that direct capacity with laser-like precision over high-demand areas, to provide HTS (High Throughput) broadband connectivity for the mobility market. The satellites will be based on Airbus’ new standard and fully reconfigurable satellite product line OneSat. Fully reconfigurable and featuring on board processing and active antennas, the three Ka-band spacecraft will be able to adjust their coverage, capacity and frequency.
SOURCE: LAUNCH LIBRARY 2 // THE SPACE DEVS
LAUNCH CORRIDOR
- Due east
- The lowest orbit inclination a direct launch from here can reach — 28.5°, which is this pad’s own latitude. It also collects the most free speed from Earth’s rotation.
- Due south
- The polar and sun-synchronous corridor: 90° inclination, passing over both poles. It gets no help from Earth’s spin, which is why it costs more payload.
Drag the globe to turn it. The shading is the real terminator, and it moves.
A globe of the Earth centred on Unknown Pad at latitude 28.46 degrees north, longitude 80.53 degrees west. Two curved lines leave the pad. The solid gold line runs due east and marks the lowest orbital inclination a direct launch from this site can reach, 28.5 degrees, equal to the pad’s latitude of 28.5 degrees. The dashed cyan line runs due south and marks the polar corridor at 90 degrees inclination. The darkened part of the globe is the night side. Surface wind is blowing from 110°, at 13 km/h, shown as the cyan arrow at the pad.
LAUNCH SITE
Unknown Pad
Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA, United States of America
OBSERVED 2026-08-28 21:45:00Z // OPEN-METEO (CC BY 4.0) // GENERAL CONDITIONS, NOT LAUNCH CRITERIA
Minimum direct inclination 28°. From 28° north of the equator, a direct ascent cannot enter an orbit inclined less than 28°, because an orbit of inclination i never passes over latitudes beyond ±i. Reaching an equatorial plane — what a geostationary transfer ultimately needs — therefore costs a plane change of 28° somewhere in the flight, while inclinations of 28° and above are available straight off the pad. The ground here is carried eastward at about 409 m/s (465 m/s at the equator, falling with the cosine of latitude), and a due-east launch keeps that head start.
DATUM WGS-84 // EQUIRECTANGULAR PROJECTION // ORBIT FIGURES DERIVED FROM THE PUBLISHED LATITUDE
PAD CONDITIONS
SURFACE WIND @ 10 M
13km/h
Blowing from the east-south-east, bearing 110 degrees
GUSTING
16km/h
Clear sky
SOURCE: OPEN-METEO CC BY 4.0
The observed block is general weather for the coordinates of Unknown Pad, not launch-commit criteria. Those are written per mission by the operator and the range, cover conditions this forecast does not carry at all (electric fields, cloud layers aloft, winds through the vehicle’s own load limits), and are published only by the operator. Wind is a common reason countdowns stop for weather — that is general context, not a rule about this flight, and no number in this block is a threshold. Nothing here is a go or no-go call, and no operator figure was published for this attempt.
COMMON QUESTIONS
What time does Falcon 9 Block 5 · Inmarsat-7 F1 (GX-7) launch?
SpaceX is targeting 2026-12-31 00:00:00Z for Falcon 9 Block 5 | Inmarsat-7 F1 (GX-7). The operator has not published how precise that target time is. The window is instantaneous: the vehicle flies at T-0 or stands down to the next opportunity.
Where can I watch Falcon 9 Block 5 · Inmarsat-7 F1 (GX-7) launch?
No official webcast has been published for Falcon 9 Block 5 | Inmarsat-7 F1 (GX-7) yet. When SpaceX posts a feed it is linked from this page, and the live countdown here runs against the published T-0 in the meantime.
What is Falcon 9 Block 5 · Inmarsat-7 F1 (GX-7) carrying?
Inmarsat-7 is the seventh generation of satellites for the London-based global mobile satellite communications operator Inmarsat. The three satellites of the series - GX-7, 8 & 9 - will have an improved fully reconfigurable Ka-band payload for Inmarsat's Global Xpress services.
Where does Falcon 9 Block 5 · Inmarsat-7 F1 (GX-7) launch from?
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Inmarsat-7 F1 (GX-7) lifts off from Unknown Pad, Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA, United States of America. The pad sits at 28.4580, -80.5280.