WASHINGTON — Capella Space will launch two radar imaging satellites on SpaceX rideshare missions after an Electron launch failure disrupted its deployment plans.
Capella announced Dec. 5 that it had arranged to fly two of its Acadia satellites on SpaceX rideshare missions in the primary half of 2024. Acadia-4 will fly on the Bandwagon-1 mission as soon as April 2024 while Acadia-5 will launch on Transporter-11 no sooner than June 2024. The Transporter-11 mission was arranged through launch services company Exolaunch.
Capella said in an announcement that the arrangements allow for a diversity of orbits for its spacecraft. Bandwagon-1 is the primary of a brand new line of dedicated rideshare missions that SpaceX announced earlier this 12 months that can go to mid-inclination orbits, moderately than sun-synchronous orbits accessed by Transporter missions.
“Working with SpaceX to launch our Acadia satellites into a wide range of orbits is a big win for Capella and can enhance our ability to bring greater coverage and better revisits over key areas of interest across our customer spectrum,” Frank Backes, chief executive of Capella Space, said in an organization statement.
Capella Space signed a contract in February with Rocket Lab for 4 launches of its recent line of Acadia satellites. Each launch would carry a single Acadia satellite, with the 4 launches occurring in “rapid succession” starting within the second half of 2023. Electron rockets launched earlier versions of Capella radar imaging satellites in August 2020 and March 2023.
The primary of those 4 launches took place Aug. 23, successfully placing the primary Acadia satellite into orbit. The second, though, failed to achieve orbit Sept. 19 when the second stage engine shut down immediately after ignition, leading to the lack of the satellite.
That failure, Rocket Lab said Nov. 9, was linked to an “unexpected electrical arc” in the ability supply of the upper stage, causing a lack of power and engine shutdown. The corporate said then that it expected to resume Electron launches in late November with a mission for an additional radar imaging satellite company, Japan’s iQPS, but that launch has since slipped to mid-December.
“Along with the upcoming launches with SpaceX, Capella may even proceed working with Rocket Lab to launch satellites into orbit,” Capella said in its statement concerning the SpaceX launch agreements, but didn’t disclose when those launches would happen.