SpaceX launches 114 small satellites on first mission of 2023 – Spaceflight Now - Spaceflight Now

SpaceX’s archetypal motorboat of the twelvemonth fired distant from Cape Canaveral Tuesday and hauled 114 tiny satellites into polar orbit for operators successful 23 countries, deploying a scope of payloads for tech demo, Earth observation, and connection missions.

A 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket did the lifting, kicking disconnected the ngo astatine 9:56 a.m. EST (1456 GMT) with a thundering motorboat from pad 40 astatine Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The motorboat marked the 1st of arsenic galore arsenic 100 missions connected SpaceX’s docket for 2023, pursuing a grounds 61 launches past year.

Launch pads connected Florida’s Space Coast were busier than ever past year, with 57 rocket flights aiming to enactment payloads into orbit. The U.S. Space Force is preparing for arsenic galore arsenic 87 launches from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center successful 2023. Read our earlier story for details connected the 2023 motorboat schedule.

For Tuesday’s mission, the Falcon 9 headed southeast from Cape Canaveral, past veered south along Florida’s eastbound seashore to spot the mission’s 114 payloads into polar orbit. The archetypal signifier fired its 9 Merlin engines for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, past separated from the Falcon precocious signifier to statesman its instrumentality to Florida.

The archetypal signifier pulsed acold state nitrogen thrusters to flip astir and alert tail-first, past ignited 3 of the Merlin engines for a boost-back pain to reverse people and caput backmost to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The booster extended titanium grid fins arsenic it dilatory cartwheeled astatine the borderline of space, providing aerodynamic immunodeficiency to assistance steer the rocket backmost done the atmosphere. Then the rocket fired 3 of its engines again for a re-entry burn. After slowing to a velocity little than the velocity of sound, the rocket lit its halfway motor for a last braking maneuver conscionable earlier a vertical touchdown connected 4 legs astatine Landing Zone 1, little than 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the motorboat pad.

The reusable archetypal signifier connected Tuesday’s ngo — process fig B1060 — aced its 15th motorboat and landing, tying a grounds for the most-flown booster successful SpaceX’s inventory. It debuted successful June 2020 connected a ngo carrying a GPS navigation outer into space, and astir precocious flew Oct. 8 connected a ngo with 2 Intelsat TV broadcasting satellites.

While the booster returned to Cape Canaveral Tuesday the Falcon 9’s 2nd signifier motor burned astir six minutes to scope a preliminary parking orbit. After coasting implicit Central America, the Pacific Ocean, and Antarctica, the precocious signifier concisely restarted its motor for 2 seconds astir 55 minutes into the ngo to place the outer payloads into a near-circular orbit astatine an altitude of astir 326 miles (525 kilometers), and an inclination of 97.5 degrees to the equator.

Then the Falcon 9 rocket began a cautiously choreographed deployment series to merchandise its menagerie of payloads. The deployment series started astatine T+plus 58 minutes, with 82 separation events planned implicit 33 minutes.

SpaceX confirmed the completion of 78 of the 82 separation events. “Teams are continuing to reappraisal data, though it whitethorn instrumentality customers immoderate clip to supply further accusation connected the presumption of their payloads,” the institution tweeted Tuesday afternoon.

The payloads on-board SpaceX’s Transporter 6 ngo — the company’s sixth dedicated smallsat rideshare motorboat — came from customers successful Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Kuwait, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Uruguay.

The planetary spirit is simply a accustomed diagnostic for SpaceX’s Transporter rideshare missions, which aggregate numbers tiny satellites onto a azygous Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX’s Transporter smallsat rideshare programme began with the Transporter 1 ngo successful January 2021 with 143 tiny satellites and transportation vehicles. Transporter 2 followed successful June 2021 with 88 payloads, and SpaceX launched 105 tiny payloads connected Transporter 3 successful January 2022. Transporter 4 past April delivered 40 tiny satellites and payloads to orbit, past Transporter 5 launched successful May with 59 spacecraft, transportation vehicles, and hosted payloads.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts disconnected from pad 40 connected the Transporter 6 mission. Credit: SpaceX

There’s precocious request for SpaceX’s rideshare motorboat service. Several SpaceX customers person said the terms for a slot connected a Transporter ngo is unmatched successful the motorboat industry.

On its website, SpaceX says it charges customers $1.2 cardinal to motorboat a payload of 440 pounds (200 kilograms) connected a dedicated rideshare formation to sun-synchronous orbit. The terms is enabled by outgo reductions from reusing Falcon 9 rocket hardware. SpaceX has blamed ostentation for hiking the terms for a 440-pound payload slot from $1 million.

Broker companies similar Berlin-based Exolaunch, the Italian motorboat broker D-Orbit, and ISILaunch reserved ports connected the Transporter 6 payload stack, past divided that capableness among aggregate tiny outer customers.

One of ISILaunch’s customers connected Transporter 6 was Planet, the San Francisco-based distant sensing company. Planet says it has 36 SuperDove Earth-imaging satellites, each astir the size of a toaster oven, on-board the Transporter 6 mission.

“We’re excited to again enactment with SpaceX to bring 36 SuperDoves to orbit, our eighth wide motorboat with the motorboat provider,” said Mike Safyan, Planet’s vice president of launch, said earlier the Transporter 6 mission. “Once successful orbit, these satellites volition articulation our existent fleet and enactment to present cutting-edge geospatial solutions to our planetary lawsuit base.”

The caller satellites volition replenish Planet’s existent fleet of astir 200 progressive satellites, the largest Earth-observing constellation successful the world, the institution said. The SuperDove satellites each person optical cameras with sensors successful 8 spectral bands, supplying distant sensing information to commercialized customers, the U.S. government’s quality agencies, and biology monitoring groups.

Five of the SuperDove satellites are adorned with laser-etched artwork and quotes celebrating the bequest of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, according to Planet.

The Transporter 6 ngo besides deployed a astir 400-pound (178-kilogram) outer for EOS Data Analytics, a Silicon Valley startup founded by Max Polyakov, a Ukrainian  entrepreneur and investor. The EOS SAT 1 spacecraft is designed to seizure mean to precocious solution images of Earth’s surface, with an accent connected cultivation monitoring. It is 1 of the largest satellites connected the Transporter 6 launch, and was built by Dragonfly Aerospace successful South Africa.

There were six commercialized abstraction tugs and orbital transportation vehicles connected the Transporter 6 mission, each susceptible of carrying aggregate smaller satellites into antithetic orbits for “last-mile” transportation successful debased Earth orbit.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster descends to Landing Zone 1 Tuesday to wrapper up its 15th formation to space. Credit: SpaceX

The abstraction tugs tin alteration their altitude, inclination, oregon different orbital parameters, hauling tiny payloads to antithetic locations successful abstraction than the drop-off orbit of the main rocket. The transportation vehicles tin reposition tiny satellites into orbits much favorable for their missions.

Two of the transportation vehicles connected the Transporter 6 ngo came from the Italian institution D-Orbit, which volition deploy respective nanosatellites into orbit successful the weeks aft launch. D-Orbit’s 2 ION outer carriers volition merchandise 4 tiny satellites for a information relay and plus tracking constellation owned by the Swiss institution Astrocast. One of the ION tugs volition besides deploy Kelpie, a 9-pound (4-kilogram) CubeSat to supply maritime tracking services for Orbcomm.

Another orbital transportation conveyance developed by a startup named Launcher was besides mounted connected the Transporter 6 payload stack. Launcher’s Orbiter SN1 abstraction tug is fitted with a ethane/nitrous oxide propulsion strategy to alteration its orbital altitude and inclination, and the institution says the conveyance is susceptible of accommodating up to 880 pounds (400 kilograms) of payload mass.

The Orbiter SN1 ngo carries deployable satellites for U.S.-based Skyline Celestial, Innova Space of Argentina, Italy’s NPC SpaceMind, Cal Poly Pomona, Stanford University, and an undisclosed customer. The spacecraft besides hosts a payload containing cremated quality remains for Beyond Burials, and a phased array antenna from CesiumAstro to demonstrate a high-data complaint Ka-band communications strategy that could beryllium utilized connected aboriginal tiny satellites successful Earth orbit and astatine the moon.

An Australian institution named Skykraft besides launched a 660-pound (300-kilogram) payload connected the Transporter 6 mission. The Skykraft bundle includes the company’s ain orbital transportation vehicle, which volition abstracted from the Falcon 9 rocket and past aboriginal deploy 4 of its ain satellites for Skykraft’s planned constellation of 210 spacecraft providing aerial postulation absorption services. Skykraft says its satellites volition relay real-time communications betwixt aerial postulation power and pilots flying implicit distant parts of the ocean.

San Francisco-based Epic Aerospace besides launched its archetypal orbital transportation vehicle, called Chimera LEO 1, connected the Transporter 6 mission. Epic Aerospace has not said if its archetypal transportation conveyance volition deploy immoderate lawsuit payloads, oregon if the ngo is purely a exertion demonstration.

And Momentus’s 2nd orbital abstraction tug, called the Vigoride 5 Orbital Service Vehicle, rode to abstraction Tuesday connected SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. The Vigoride 5 Orbital Service Vehicle, oregon OSV, follows Momentus’s archetypal abstraction tug demo mission, which launched connected SpaceX’s Transporter 5 rideshare ngo successful May.

Momentus performed further investigating of its 2nd orbital transportation conveyance aft encountering anomalies connected the archetypal trial ngo successful 2022. The pre-flight checks included star array deployment testing. Credit: Momentus

The archetypal Momentus objection ngo ran into occupation soon aft separating from the Falcon 9 rocket. The Vigoride 3 transportation conveyance encountered communications issues and failed to unfastened its star arrays, putting the spacecraft successful a powerfulness crunch that prevented it from completing each ngo objectives. Momentus said the Vigoride 3 abstraction tug yet released 7 of its 9 lawsuit outer payloads.

Momentus hopes to trial the Vigoride transportation vehicle’s water-based microwave electrothermal thruster system, a benignant of propulsion strategy that provides higher ratio than accepted rocket fuels, and higher thrust than ion engines.

The Vigoride 5 abstraction tug volition deploy a tiny CubeSat into orbit for Qosmosys, a Singapore-based abstraction venture.

The different payload connected the Vigoride 5 abstraction tug comes from Caltech, which is flying hardware that could beryllium utilized successful the aboriginal to make energy successful abstraction and beam the vigor backmost to Earth for usage connected the ground.

The 110-pound (50-kilogram) Space Solar Power Demonstrator payload volition trial a scaled-down 6-by-6-foot deployable operation that simulates mechanisms needed to conception a immense powerfulness procreation presumption successful space. Engineers volition besides measure the show of 22 types of star cells to find which plan is astir effective, and trial microwave powerfulness transmitters needed to beam vigor backmost to Earth.

“No substance what happens, this prototype is simply a large measurement forward,” said Ali Hajimiri, a prof of electrical engineering astatine Caltech and co-director of the institution’s Space Solar Power Project. “It works present connected Earth, and has passed the rigorous steps required of thing launched into space. There are inactive galore risks, but having gone done the full process has taught america invaluable lessons. We judge the abstraction experiments volition supply america with plentifulness of further utile accusation that volition usher the task arsenic we proceed to determination forward.”

The star powerfulness experiment’s deployable operation employs “ultra-thin composite materials to execute unprecedented packaging ratio and flexibility,” Caltech said successful a property release.

“The full flexible (microwave) array, arsenic good arsenic its halfway wireless powerfulness transportation physics chips and transmitting elements, person been designed from scratch,” Hajimiri said. “This wasn’t made from items you tin bargain due to the fact that they didn’t adjacent exist. This cardinal rethinking of the strategy from the crushed up is indispensable to recognize scalable solutions for SSPP (Space Solar Power Project).”

Launcher’s Orbiter SN1 transportation conveyance hosts aggregate payloads connected SpaceX’s Transporter 6 mission. Credit: Launcher / John Kraus

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was besides loaded with 3 radar distant sensing microsatellites for the Finnish institution ICEYE, and 2 akin radar imaging satellites for Umbra, a startup based successful Santa Barbara, California.

There were 4 optical Earth reflection microsatellites on-board for Satellogic, a distant sensing institution headquartered successful Uruguay. Two of them volition beryllium chiefly utilized to survey Albanian territory done an statement betwixt Satellogic and the Albanian government.

The Transporter 6 ngo besides deployed 2 132-pound (60-kilogram) spacecraft for Lynk Global, a Virginia-based institution processing exertion to link consumer-grade mobile phones done satellites. A outer called YAM 5 — Yet Another Mission 5 — from Loft Orbital was besides aboard the Falcon 9 rocket. YAM 5 is simply a “condosat” hosting respective lawsuit tech demo payloads, including a formation computer, an infrared camera, and telecom systems.

A U.S. Space Force upwind ngo connected the Transporter 6 motorboat volition trial a prototype unreality imaging instrumentality called the Rapid Revisit Optical Cloud Imager, oregon RROCI. The Space Force instrumentality is hosted connected a tiny outer developed by Orion Space Solutions.

Two subject satellites from Norway and the Netherlands volition enactment successful tandem to show the subject usage of a microsatellite spectrum monitoring strategy to observe and geolocate radar emissions.

A outer named Sternula 1, owned by the Danish institution Sternula, volition trial a VHF communications strategy for maritime communications. A briefcase-size spacecraft named NSLSat 2 became the 2nd outer launched for the Israeli institution NSLComm, which is processing a constellation of smallsats for high-throughput communications.

The Transporter 6 ngo launched 4 caller satellites for Kleos Space of Luxembourg, which operates a fleet of spacecraft to detect and geolocate vigor frequence transmissions, providing quality connected maritime enactment for governments and commercialized customers. Another tiny outer called STAR VIBE from Scanway Space, a Polish company, volition validate the show of 2 optical payloads, 1 for Earth reflection and different for outer self-inspection.

A Planet SuperDove with the “Boldly Go Campaign” artwork laser etched onto its broadside panels to grant the enactment of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. Credit: Planet

Other CubeSat payloads connected SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket included the BRO-8 outer for the French maritime surveillance institution Unseenlabs, the Menut Earth reflection spacecraft from the Spanish institution Open Cosmos, the Guardian Alpha tech demo outer for the UK institution OrbAstro, and the Connecta T1.2 testbed for the Turkish net of things institution Plan-S.

A outer named Platform 2 from the Bulgarian steadfast EnduroSat was besides on-board. It is different “condosat” ngo to enactment investigating of respective lawsuit payloads, including plasma and arc-based thrusters from Magdrive and Hypernova.

A French CubeSat called Gama Alpha volition unfurl a 789-square-foot (73.3-square-meter) star sail successful debased Earth orbit and effort to harness airy vigor from the prima arsenic a means of propulsion. Sony’s Star Sphere CubeSat carries a full-frame camera with a 28-135 mm lens. Sony says selected artists and abstraction enthusiasts volition beryllium capable to bid the camera to instrumentality pictures of Earth, sunrises and sunsets, the satellite and stars.

There were besides six CubeSats connected the Transporter 6 ngo for Spire Global’s constellation satellites for vessel tracking and upwind information collection, positive 12 tiny “picosats” for Swarm Technologies, a institution owned by SpaceX. Swarm is developing a low-data-rate outer communications system. Each of the Swarm satellites is astir the size of a portion of bread.

The Transporter 6 motorboat besides placed into orbit a tiny CubeSat from Ukraine to trial thermal power technology, Kuwait’s archetypal outer mission, and an amateur vigor CubeSat from the Czech Republic.

SpaceX’s adjacent motorboat is acceptable for Sunday, Jan. 8, with the adjacent radical of 40 net satellites for OneWeb’s commercialized broadband constellation. That motorboat volition instrumentality disconnected from Cape Canaveral, and is scheduled for astir 11:45 p.m. EST Sunday (0445 GMT Monday).

ROCKET: Falcon 9 (B1060.15)

MISSION: Transporter 6

PAYLOAD: 114 microsatellites, CubeSats, orbital transportation vehicles, and satellites to beryllium deployed later

LAUNCH SITE: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida

LAUNCH DATE: Jan. 3, 2023

LAUNCH TIME: 9:56:00 a.m. EST (1456:00 GMT)

LAUNCH WINDOW: One minute

WEATHER FORECAST: 90% probability of acceptable weather

BOOSTER RECOVERY: Landing Zone 1 astatine Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

LAUNCH AZIMUTH: South-southeast, past south

TARGET ORBIT: Approximately 326 miles (525 kilometers), 97.5 degrees inclination

LAUNCH TIMELINE:

• T+00:00: Liftoff
• T+01:12: Maximum aerodynamic unit (Max-Q)
• T+02:17: First signifier main motor cutoff (MECO)
• T+02:20: Stage separation
• T+02:28: Second signifier motor ignition
• T+02:33: First signifier boost-back pain ignition (three engines)
• T+03:20: First signifier boost-back pain ends
• T+03:46: Fairing jettison
• T+06:44: First signifier introduction pain ignition (three engines)
• T+07:07: First signifier introduction pain ends
• T+07:58: First signifier landing pain ignition (one engine)
• T+08:23: Second signifier motor cutoff (SECO 1)
• T+08:30: First signifier landing
• T+55:20: Second signifier motor restart
• T+55:22: Second signifier motor cutoff (SECO 2)
• T+58:24: KuwaitSat 1 separation
• T+58:34: BDSAT 2 separation
• T+58:35: SharedSat 2211 separation
• T+58:44: Spire’s Lemur 2 Emmaculate separation
• T+58:55: Spire’s Lemur 2 Fuentetaja-01 separation
• T+59:51: Connecta T1.2 separation
• T+1:00:00: Gama Alpha separation
• T+1:00:01: BRO-8 separation
• T+1:00:12: Menut separation
• T+1:00:18: MilSpace2 Huygens separation
• T+1:00:24: Spire’s Lemur 2 Disclaimer separation
• T+1:00:35: STAR VIBE separation
• T+1:00:55: Spire’s Lemur 2 Stevealbers separation
• T+1:01:11: Kleos KSF-3A separation
• T+1:02:02: MilSpace2 Birkeland separation
• T+1:02:07: Swarm’s SpaceBEE picosat separation
• T+1:02:47: Spire’s Lemur 2 Mmolo separation
• T+1:02:54: Kleos KSF-3B separation
• T+1:03:25: Kleos KSF-3C separation
• T+1:04:47: Spire’s Lemur 2 Philari separation
• T+1:05:02: Kleos KSF-3C separation
• T+1:05:03: First Planet SuperDove Flock 4Y separation
• T+1:05:11: EWS RROCI separation
• T+1:05:12: PolyItan HP-30 separation
• T+1:05:23: Guardian Alpha separation
• T+1:05:40: Sony Sphere Eye 1 separation
• T+1:05:50: NSLSat 2 separation
• T+1:06:30: Sternula 1 separation
• T+1:19:42: Last Planet SuperDove Flock 4Y separation
• T+1:19:46: Lynk Tower 3 separation
• T+1:20:00: Albania 1 separation
• T+1:20:02: Lynk Tower 4 separation
• T+1:20:42: YAM 5 separation
• T+1:21:48: Satellogic NewSat 34 separation
• T+1:22:03: Albania 2 separation
• T+1:22:58: First ICEYE outer separation
• T+1:23:04: Second ICEYE outer separation
• T+1:23:46: First Umbra outer separation
• T+1:23:50: Second Umbra outer separation
• T+1:24:47: Satellogic NewSat 35 separation
• T+1:24:59: D-Orbit’s ION SCV-007 Glorious Gratia separation
• T+1:26:05: D-Orbit’s ION SCV-008 Fierce Franciscus separation
• T+1:26:11: Launcher’s Orbiter SN1 separation
• T+1:27:31: Third ICEYE outer separation
• T+1:27:34: Skykraft 1 separation
• T+1:28:10: Vigoride 5 separation
• T+1:28:54: Chimera LEO 1 separation
• T+1:31:10: EOS SAT 1 separation

MISSION STATS:

• 195th motorboat of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2010
• 204th motorboat of Falcon rocket household since 2006
• 15th motorboat of Falcon 9 booster B1060
• 166th Falcon 9 motorboat from Florida’s Space Coast
• 108th Falcon 9 motorboat from pad 40
• 163rd motorboat wide from pad 40
• 134th formation of a reused Falcon 9 booster
• 6th Transporter rideshare ngo launched by SpaceX
• 1st Falcon 9 motorboat of 2023
• 1st motorboat by SpaceX successful 2023
• 1st orbital motorboat based retired of Cape Canaveral successful 2023