NEW YORK — A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched several dozen smallsats on a dedicated rideshare mission June 12, with customers starting from the U.S. Space Force to startups deploying their first satellites.
The Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 5:35 p.m. Eastern on the Transporter-8 mission. The launch was the second of the day for SpaceX, after one other Falcon 9 launched greater than 14 hours earlier from Cape Canaveral carrying a batch of Starlink satellites.
SpaceX said Transporter-8, the eighth in its line of dedicated smallsat rideshare missions, carried 72 payloads, a figure that features orbital transfer vehicles with satellites that will probably be deployed later. The satellites were deployed in a 525-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit starting an hour after liftoff.
The mission featured a mixture of established and emerging satellite developers. Spire deployed three cubesats for collecting weather and tracking data, Iceye 4 radar imaging satellites and Satellogic 4 optical and hyperspectral imaging satellites. All three firms used the launch so as to add to their existing constellations.
Several firms, though, were flying their first spacecraft on Transporter-8. That features Varda Space Industries, which launched its W-Series 1 spacecraft, built by Rocket Lab. The spacecraft will test manufacturing of high-value products, like pharmaceuticals, within the space environment. Those products will probably be brought back to Earth in a return capsule on the spacecraft.
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Satellite Vu launches its first satellite, HotSat-1, to show thermal imaging technologies for its planned constellation. Muon Space, which is working a constellation of climate-monitoring satellites, flew its MuSat-1 on this launch. Turion Space launched its first spacecraft, Droid.001, to gather space situational awareness data.
Starfish Space, which is developing satellite servicing technologies, launched its first prototype, Otter Pup, on Transporter-8. The spacecraft, carried on the Orbiter SN3 tug from Launcher, will separate from the tug after which try to rendezvous with it.
Several other payloads are also on Orbiter SN3. D-Orbit has its latest ION tug on Transporter-8, but the corporate didn’t immediately disclose the payloads on that vehicle.
Along with firms flying their first satellites, one other company flew its first propulsion system on one other satellite. Australian company Neumann Space said its first Neumann Drive electric thruster, which uses a solid metal rod as fuel, was a part of a satellite built by Skykraft, one other Australian company developing a satellite constellation to support air traffic management services.
“Today we’ve got moved our work from the laboratory to space,” said Herve Astier, chief executive of Neumann Space, in a press release after the launch. “Flight heritage will enable us to offer greater detail concerning the operational performance of our product to customers and ultimately fill the gap existing out there today.”
The U.S. military used the Transporter-8 mission to launch several satellites. 4 satellites for DARPA’s Blackjack program to check satellite constellation technologies were on the launch, in addition to three satellites from the Space Force’s Space Systems Command which are a part of the Defense Department’s Space Test Program. Two of the satellites, called Modular Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, are imaging cubesats, while the third, XVI, will test using Link-16 military communications in space.
SpaceX has attracted significant demand for its Transporter missions, which provide launches three to 4 times a 12 months at prices significantly lower than dedicated launches on small launch vehicles. The corporate’s website, which lists available launch slots and costs, suggests its Transporter missions are fully booked until the second quarter of 2025.
The launch itself was a milestone for SpaceX. The primary stage, making its ninth flight, landed back on the launch site at Vandenberg. That was the 200th landing of a Falcon booster thus far.