SiriusXM launches its seventh Maxar-built satellite on SpaceX

Paris, 14 December 2020. – A seventh SiriusXM satellite by Maxar, a seventh flight of the same Falcon 9 booster: The space firm Maxar Technologies and SiriusXM, the audio entertainment company, successfully launched the SXM-7 satellite on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, the companies said.

SXM-7 will deliver SiriusXM’s audio entertainment and information services to consumers in the U.S., the companies said, and will expand SiriusXM’s coverage area in Canada and the Caribbean.

SXM-7 will deliver “the highest power density of any commercial satellite on-orbit”, Maxar and Sirius claim, “sending more than 8,000 watts of content to the continental U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean”.

SXM-7 weighs almost 7,000 kg and is built on Maxar’s 1300-class platform. Maxar has built a total of seven satellites for SiriusXM, including its first-generation Sirius satellites that launched in 2000 and its second-generation Sirius satellites that launched in 2009 and 2013.

The SXM-7 mission marked the seventh flight of this specific Falcon 9 first stage rocket booster, SpaceX said. A couple of minutes after its separation, SpaceX landed the booster again on the “Just Read the Instructions” droneship in the Atlantic Ocean.