The satellite launched can be followed live on http://www.spacex.comPictured: Patrick Biewer, president-director general of GovSat; Prince Guillaume ; Princess Stéphanie, Xavier Bettel, prime minister; Gwynne Shotwell, president and director of operations of SpaceX; Karim Michel Sabbagh, president and CEO of SES Charles Caratini/SIP

The satellite launched can be followed live on http://www.spacex.comPictured: Patrick Biewer, president-director general of GovSat; Prince Guillaume ; Princess Stéphanie, Xavier Bettel, prime minister; Gwynne Shotwell, president and director of operations of SpaceX; Karim Michel Sabbagh, president and CEO of SES Charles Caratini/SIP

Prince Guillaume and Princess Stéphanie, the prime minister Xavier Bettel and the economy and defence minister Etienne Schneider have all travelled to Florida to witness the launch.

The satellite will be launched aboard a SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral launch pad in Florida, and the launch window opens at 22:23 (Luxembourg time) for an approximate duration of two hours. The launch is transmitted live on the SpaceX website.

The satellite will be operated by GovSat, a public-private joint venture created in 2015 between the Luxembourg state and SES. Its mission is to provide secure and reliable satellite communication capabilities for both military and civilian purposes to meet growing demands in the institutional and defense fields.

While part of the capacity of the GovSat-1 satellite will be used to meet Luxembourg’s requirements for military-frequency satellite communications, the plan is to resell GovSat-1’s additional communication capabilities to allied and partner countries as well as to international organisations (notably Nato and the EU).