To prepare for the upcoming mission to Duna, two communications satellites are being launched into extremely elliptical orbits over both poles of Kerbin, which means one will always be above/below the ecliptic at any given time. Once in a low parking orbit, the transfer stage will carry it high up above Kerbin and then detach and de-orbit, leaving the satellite in place. 3 communications dishes adorn the satellite. One can reach as far as Eeloo, and the other two are capable of inter-system communications as far as Minmus.

This is the second satellite to launch, and we now have a new launch time set while engineers remove and service the main engine. A fuel valve broke so fuel flooded the engine during priming, which would have resulted in quite a large explosion on ignition.