SpaceX to launch 1st rocket of 2023 with 114 satellites aboard on Jan. 3 - Space.com

SpaceX is acceptable to motorboat immoderate belated New Year's fireworks of its ain connected Tuesday with a ngo to alert 114 antithetic satellites into orbit to footwear disconnected 2023.

A Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX volition motorboat the company's epic Transporter-6 rideshare ngo astatine 9:56 a.m. EST (1456 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station successful Florida. You tin ticker the motorboat unrecorded present astatine Space.com successful a livestream brought to you by EOS Data Analytics (EOSDA).

The Transporter-6 ngo volition motorboat EOS SAT-1 for EOSDA connected this mission; that's the archetypal of 7 agriculture-focused satellites for the company's caller constellation. EOS SAT-1 volition beryllium the past of the 114 satellites to deploy during the Transporter-6 mission, according to a SpaceX ngo timeline.

"This motorboat brings caller game-changing possibilities of outer technologies to the cultivation industry. EOSDA volition present enactment with proprietary datasets to supply adjacent deeper and much close insights for its customers and partners," EOSDA CEO Artiom Anisimov said successful a statement. 

Related: 8 ways SpaceX has transformed spaceflight forever

EOS SAT-1 is designed to scrutinize 386,000 miles (1 cardinal quadrate kilometers) regular utilizing 11 bands of light. Examining the crop's wellness successful this mode is expected to let farmers to amended customize their attraction for the crops, to trim c dioxide emissions, vigor depletion and h2o usage, among different benefits.

The afloat EOS SAT fleet, erstwhile acceptable astir 2025, volition purpose to look astatine 4.6 cardinal quadrate miles (12 cardinal sq. km.) each day, which is astir a 3rd much than the equivalent country of the United States. The 7 satellites, built by Dragonfly Aerospace, purpose to scope 100 percent of countries "with the largest areas of farmlands and forestlands," EOSDA's connection added. 

There are different outer crops that volition alert to abstraction aboard Transporter-6 arsenic well. For example, Spire Global plans to motorboat six satellites (opens successful caller tab) to grow its constellation monitoring maritime and aviation postulation utilizing ADS-B technology. 

Spaceflight Inc. plans to heft 4 Kleos spacecraft (opens successful caller tab) to a sun-synchronous orbit that keeps accordant lighting conditions beneath the fleet. Kleos examines vigor frequence transmissions from abstraction to hunt for "hidden and amerciable activity", its website states (opens successful caller tab).

The Transporter bid of missions are "dedicated rideshares," meaning that they diagnostic what whitethorn beryllium dozens of tiny satellites flying to abstraction connected a azygous Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX has not confirmed the afloat manifest of Transporter-6 connected its website. The archetypal ngo of the series, Transporter-1, launched a grounds 143 satellites connected Jan. 24, 2021.

The Falcon 9 rocket for Transporter-6 has a archetypal signifier that is making its 15th flight. The booster antecedently launched SpaceX's Transporter-2 rideshare mission, 3 commercialized outer flights and 10 Starlink outer missions, SpaceX has said. If each goes well, the booster should instrumentality to a landing pad astatine Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for a touchdown.

Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of "Why Am I Taller (opens successful caller tab)?" (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a publication astir abstraction medicine. Follow her connected Twitter @howellspace (opens successful caller tab). Follow america connected Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens successful caller tab) or Facebook (opens successful caller tab).