Paz

Launch data:

Spacecraft data:

Description:

• PAZ is a radar imaging satellite operated by Spanish company Hisdesat. The spacecraft will provide day and night, all-weather imaging capabilities for Hisdesat’s customer, Spain’s Ministry of Defense.

Mission details:

• The PAZ radar satellite, built by Airbus for Hisdesat and the Spanish Defense Ministry, was launched on Feb 22, 2018 by Falcon 9.
• Two test communications satellites for SpaceX were also aboard. No attempt was made to recover the Falcon 9 first stage, but one half of the newly designed fairing made a controlled reentry aimed at the recovery boat Mr. Steven. However, the fairing missed the boat by a short distance.
• PAZ was deployed at 1426 UTC; the Tintin satellites some unknown time later. The second stage, after deploying PAZ and Tintin A/B, made an orbit lowering burn over the Arctic at 1542 UTC, changing orbit from 495 x 516 km to 211 x 517 km. After completing a second orbit, a further burn over Norway at 1709 UTC appears to have deorbited the stage. It re-entered as it travelled southbound over the Pacific between the Aleutians and Midway, at about 1730 UTC. The two-stage deorbit is unusual and has not been explained by SpaceX.

External links:

• Satellite tracking (n2ya.com): Real time satellite tracking