SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Launch

On Monday, December 3, 2018, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched successfully from Vandenberg Airforce Base (USA), which transported a satellite into orbit, the software of which was developed in part by an employee of Organon Informationssysteme GmbH.

Credits: SpaceX
Credits: SpaceX

The Falcon 9 rocket launched at 10:34:05 a.m. PST (1:34:05 p.m. EST, 1834: 05 GMT) from the Space Launch Complex 4-East near Vandenberg on the Pacific coast between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The SSO-A Rideshare mission transported 64 microsatellites into orbit 575 km above the Earth.

One of these satellites, a CubeSat named MOVE-II (Munich Orbital Verification Experiment II) contains the On-Orbit Update System, which was developed by our employee. This software module makes it possible to send new software updates from Earth to the satellite and burn them to different microcontrollers to allow for software enhancements, improvements and bug fixes, even if the satellite is already in space.

For the first time, SpaceX reused a first-stage booster of the Falcon 9, which had previously been used twice. The booster was safely landed 50 km off the coast on a floating platform on the Pacific and was brought to the Port of Los Angeles for further review by SpaceX.

Due to inspections and weather conditions, the launch of the rocket was repeatedly postponed for a total of 14 days, but our employee was able to follow the start on site in Vandenberg.