SiriusXM Radio: SXM8 Successfully Launched Into Orbit

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket soared from Cape Canaveral early Sunday, generating its signature low-frequency rumble that reverberated across the Space Coast well into several minutes after liftoff.

Florida Today reports the 230-foot rocket loaded with nearly a million pounds of propellant and SiriusXM's newest radio-service satellite took flight from Launch Complex 40 at 12:26 a.m. and quickly ascended into overcast skies. The first stage then landed on the Just Read the Instructions drone ship, completing its fourth mission to date.

Thirty-three minutes after liftoff, SpaceX confirmed the rocket's second stage successfully delivered the SXM-8 satellite to orbit, where it's expected to last up to 15 years.

SXM-8 follows last December's launch of SXM-7, which also launched from the Cape on a Falcon 9 but suffered several failures after it was delivered to orbit. In January, SiriusXM confirmed it filed a $225 million insurance claim for the spacecraft and said its digital radio service would not be impacted.

Like SXM-7 and other satellites, SXM-8 will undergo on-orbit testing in the coming weeks. Both were built by Maxar in in Palo Alto, California.

SpaceX launches SiriusXM's SXM-8 satellite from Cape Canaveral https://t.co/tDSYtNHbh9 via @Florida_Today

— Tom Benson (@Tombenson1) June 6, 2021

Sunday's launch marked the 19th of the year for the Space Coast, 18 of which have been hosted by Falcon 9. So far in 2021, SpaceX has launched more missions in just six months than its entire 2019 manifest combined – and more than a dozen more are expected before the year is out.

SiriusXM played down the effect of the loss of SXM-7, which, along with SXM-8, were intended to replace the XM-3 and XM-4 satellites that have been in orbit since the mid-2000s. SiriusXM said in its SEC filings than it believes that XM-3 and XM-4 can continue to operate for several more years, and it has in orbit XM-5, a spare satellite launched in 2010.

Sean Sullivan, chief financial officer of SiriusXM, said in an April 28 earnings call that the company has released a request for proposals for a replacement satellite. He did not disclose the schedule for acquiring or launching that replacement satellite.