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'Mystery satellite' launched by SpaceX Sunday is Israel's Dror-1

What is initially reported as a 'mystery satellite' launched by Elon Musk owned SpaceX Sunday July 13, 2025 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, US is actually Israeli's Dror-1

Monday July 14, 2025 10:32 PM, Science Desk

[SpaceX video screen shot.]

What is initially reported as a "mystery satellite" launched by Elon Musk owned SpaceX Sunday July 13, 2025 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, US is actually Israeli's Dror-1.

"Mystery Satellite"

Surprisingly, SpaceX announced the successful launch of the satellite but did not reveal its identity.

"On Sunday, July 13 at 1:04 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched Commercial GTO-1 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida", SpaceX said.

"This was the 13th flight for the Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Crew-8, Polaris Dawn, CRS-31, Astranis: From One to Many, IM-2, and seven Starlink missions", the company added without revealing the identity of the payload.

This led to the many news portals labelling the satelitte a "mystery one".

"SpaceX launched a mystery satellite to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) from Florida's Space Coast early Sunday morning (July 13)", Space.com reported.

"Dror-1"

It is, however, now turned out that the "mystery satellite" launched by SpaceX this Sunday was the Israeli "communication" satellite Dror-1.

Interestingly, SpaceX chose to hide the identity of the satellite it was disclosed to the world by none other than Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Israel Space Agency (ISA).

In two separate statements ISA and IAI said Dror-1 has been designed to meet Israel's communication needs for the next 15 years, both during routine operations and in emergencies, and will also support missions for the country's defense system.

The satellite will broadcast from a fixed point in space at an altitude of 36,000 kilometers. It weighs about 4.5 tonnes, has a wingspan of 17.8 meters, and carries an antenna with a diameter of 2.8 meters – the largest ever built for use by Israeli communications satellites.

SpaceX did not reveal why it chose to hide the identity of the Israeli satellite.

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