A Falcon 9 carried Space42’s Thuraya-4 voice and data communications satellite from Florida, opening SpaceX’s 2025 launch schedule for that rocket. The rocket lifted off at 8:27 p.m. Eastern time from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and placed the spacecraft into a geostationary transfer orbit.
Thuraya-4 is an all-electric satellite based on Airbus’s Eurostar Neo platform. A 12-meter L-band antenna is intended to support narrowband links. Its coverage area encompasses the Middle East and Central Asia, together with territories in Africa and Europe. The mission moved the satellite toward a geostationary operating position, where a spacecraft matches Earth’s rotation and remains over a fixed region.
Yahsat ordered Thuraya-4 from Airbus in 2020 to replace two aging Boeing-built satellites already operating in geostationary orbit. Yahsat later combined with the Emirati artificial-intelligence company Bayanat in October to form Space42. The original Airbus agreement included a possible second spacecraft for mobile satellite service in Asia, but that option had not been exercised.
The launch report did not specify when commercial service would begin or give an expected date for arrival at its final slot.
The launch followed schedule changes. Thuraya-4 had originally been planned for 2023, before Airbus encountered cost and timing problems in its space business. It was also expected to fly in December 2024 before moving into the new year.
For SpaceX, the mission followed a record operational year. The company completed 134 Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches in 2024, compared with 96 during 2023. That total fell short of the 148 orbital missions SpaceX had hoped to perform but exceeded the combined count attributed to the rest of the world in the supplied report. President and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell said the company was aiming for between 175 and 180 launches in 2025.
Space42 presented Thuraya-4 as part of a broader connectivity strategy. Ali Al Hashemi, chief executive of its Yahsat Space Services division, said the spacecraft would support new services using artificial intelligence, though the statement did not provide specifics. Managing director Karim Sabbagh had previously identified hybrid communications and geospatial applications for emerging markets, including autonomous vehicles, as an early focus.
The company already delivered broadband and television services through three other geostationary satellites. Airbus was also building Al Yah-4 and Al Yah-5 for planned SpaceX launches in 2027 and 2028. Separately, Space42 ordered two Airbus spacecraft for low Earth orbit, indicating an intended multi-orbit network whose details were still limited. Thuraya-4’s launch was thus one completed step in a larger, partly undisclosed fleet plan.
