A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the Intelsat 40e mission to a geosynchronous transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 12:30 a.m. on 7 April 2023. Following stage separation, the first stage landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched CRS-26, OneWeb Launch 16, and one Starlink mission.

Intelsat 40e (IS-40e) will provide focused coverage over North America for our commercial aviation, maritime, land mobility and networks customers, and will monitor and track air pollution across North America with NASA’s hosted payload Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO). TEMPO will monitor and track air pollution across North America on an hourly basis with the ability to stay over a region of interest during a natural disaster like a major fire or volcano eruption.

The Maxar-manufactured IS-40e satellite launched aboard SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 12:30 a.m. EDT on April 7, 2023.

IS-40e separated from the vehicle at 1:02 a.m. EDT and Intelsat confirmed its signal acquisition at 1:14 a.m. EDT.