On Saturday, Nov. 11 SpaceX will launch the Transporter-9 rideshare mission from launch complex SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB). The 55-minute launch window opens at 10:49 AM PST (18:49 UTC). If needed there may be a backup launch opportunity the following day with the identical launch window.
Deployment of payloads from the second stage to a Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) at an altitude of roughly 520 kilometers will begin almost an hour after launch, and last for about half-hour. There can be 89 deployment events from Falcon 9 releasing 90 spacecraft, a few of that are orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs) carrying an extra 23 satellites for later deployment.
The booster used for this flight is B1071-12, the identical booster used for the previous Transporter flight. It has also launched NROL-87, NROL-85, SARah-1, SWOT, and 6 Starlink missions. After stage separation, the booster will return to land on LZ-4 at VSFB. The second stage will conduct two burns to achieve the payload deployment orbit, then a 3rd burn to deorbit the stage when the mission is complete. Support ship will get well the payload fairing halves downrange within the Pacific Ocean.
This can be the 82nd Falcon mission of the 12 months for SpaceX. The corporate is continuous to launch at a rapid pace with this being the third of 4 flights scheduled in lower than every week. The subsequent flight will launch a pair of O3B mPOWER satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Sunday, Nov. 12. One other flight from VSFB at the top of November may also carry some rideshare satellites together with its primary payload of an Earth commentary satellite for the South Korean government.
LHA map for #Transporter-9 mission from VSFB SLC-4E NET 11 Nov 18:49 UTC, altern. 12 to fifteen Nov based on issued NOTAM/NOTMARs. LZ-4 landing for B1071.12. Estimated fairing recovery position approx. 551km downrange. Stage2 debris reentry south of Cape Town. https://t.co/dG6yDqlaep pic.twitter.com/XSDxJUHgri
— Raul (@Raul74Cz) November 10, 2023
Mission Overview
This can be the ninth dedicated rideshare mission organized by SpaceX. The Transporter flights provide a consistent cadence of rideshare opportunities to the favored SSO destination, with several flights per 12 months. Starting in 2024 these can be joined by the Bandwagon missions to a mid-inclination orbit.
Payloads range in size from picosatellites of lower than a kilogram which can be only a couple of centimeters on a side to satellites massing a pair hundred kilograms. There are a wide range of CubeSat sizes being launched. The larger 16U size is becoming more common now, with at the very least five of them on board this mission from several manufacturers. There’s also an unusual 4U size built by Spire.
The quantity of CubeSats is often given in units — “U” — of 10 by 10 by 10 centimeters. For instance, a 6U CubeSat would measure 10 by 20 by 30 centimeters. The quantity of PocketQubes is often given in P units of 5 by 5 by 5 centimeters, so a 2P PocketQube measures 5 by 5 by 10 centimeters.
While some rideshare customers deal directly with SpaceX to launch their spacecraft, a lot of the payloads are handled by launch integrators who buy space on the payload stack after which assemble multiple customers into that space, launching either directly from the launch vehicle’s second stage or on board a separable deployer or space tug that can release payloads at a later time, possibly after adjusting the orbit.
A few of the launch integrators for this flight are Exolaunch supporting 35 satellites including the deployment of 28 CubeSats, Maverick Space handling three CubeSats, SEOPS handling three CubeSats, and Momentus handling 4 CubeSats. There are three orbital transfer vehicles (OTV) from D-Orbit, Impulse Space, and Exotrail which is able to release more satellites at later dates.
D-Orbit is back with its ION SCV013 “Ultimate Hugo” OTV. The spacecraft can be carrying various satellites for later deployment, in addition to hosted payloads. Considered one of the hosted payloads is the “Stars of Calm” space memorial flight for Latest Zealand’s StardustMe.
Exotrail, based in France, is debuting a brand new OTV. SpaceVan 001 uses Exotrail’s ExoMG electric propulsion system and appears to be based on the Nanoavionics MP42 satellite bus.
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Mira OTV undergoing vibration testing before flight. (Credit: Impulse Space)
One other recent OTV comes from Impulse Space, an organization founded by Tom Mueller, former head of propulsion at SpaceX.
Impulse Space was formed to offer in-space logistics services and reduce the price of attending to higher energy orbits. In the long run that would include high-energy kick stages to maneuver payloads between orbits and services corresponding to debris removal. Step one toward those goals is the Mira OTV.
Mira is designed with the propellant tanks stacked in the middle of the vehicle with a pair of payload attachment points on either side. This arrangement helps optimize the full impulse provided by the vehicle.
Mira uses Impulse Space’s Saiph thrusters for propulsion. Saiph generates 22 newtons (five pounds-force) of thrust, using ethane and nitrous oxide propellants lit by a spark igniter. These propellants are relatively protected to work with and might easily be kept within the needed temperature range while in space. The ethane fuel can also be used for a response control system of 16 cold gas thrusters.
The eight Saiph thrusters on this vehicle are arranged in 4 pairs and can be used to display providing high thrust for missions corresponding to setting a reentry capsule on a path to hit its landing ellipse on the bottom. The arrangement also gives redundancy if a thruster should fail. The variety of thrusters could possibly be reduced to 4 in the long run for missions not needing that level of performance.
Almost all the Mira vehicle is built in-house, including the thrusters, propellant tanks, flight computers, and engine controllers. The present generation of avionics is designed to work in LEO. For future missions going to GEO and farther the avionics can be upgraded for more radiation tolerance.
Mira’s first mission is meant to display high delta-V (change in orbital velocity) capability while performing maneuvers that might be done for patrons corresponding to plane changes and LTAN changes (changing the time that the vehicle crosses the equator in its orbit.)
Mira will deploy the “Time We’ll Tell” satellite for TrustPoint, which incorporates a compact Position, Navigation, and Time (PNT) demonstration payload to deliver C-Band global time and positioning services from LEO independent of the GPS system.
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The payload stack for this flight completes the transition to SpaceX’s recent plate architecture. (Credit: SpaceX)
There are a selection of communications satellites on the flight.
Kepler Communication has AETHER 1 & 2, two pathfinder satellites to check technology for its upcoming optical communications relay network. Jacobs is launching two 3U satellites built by Spire, Mango 2a and 2b, to display a software-defined radio that will be used for each inter-satellite and space-to-ground communications, in addition to a chip-scale atomic clock to support synchronization between the satellites and geolocation. Turkey’s Plan-S has Connecta T3.1 & T3.2, a pair of 3U spacecraft to display inter-satellite links.
OQ Technologies expands its IoT constellation with Tiger-5 and -6, a pair of 6U satellites built by Danish company Space Inventor. hiSky is launching Ella 1, the primary 4U CubeSat built by Spire, designed to showcase the capabilities of hiSky’s Smartellite IoT ground network to modify between satellites in several orbits. DJIBOUTI-1A (1U), a collaboration between engineers in Djibouti and the University of Montpellier, will collect data from climatological stations.
Turkey’s Hello Space is launching for the second time this 12 months with Hello Test 1 & 2, a pair of 2P satellites for IoT communications. One interesting aspect of this mission is that they seem like using an adapter to launch PocketQubes from a CubeSat dispenser.
The Swedish satellite Ymir-1 (3U) for the AOS partnership between AAC Clyde Space, Saab, and Orbcomm was built by AAC Clype Space with a VHF Data Exchange System (VDES) payload from Saab for maritime communications.
Taiwan’s Foxconn has two 6U XL demonstration satellites, PEARL 1C, and PEARL 1H, in-built collaboration with National Central University. PEARL 1C has a Ka-band communications payload and a probe for ionospheric plasma measurement. PEARL 1H has a broadband communication experiment with a phased array antenna.
There are numerous Earth commentary satellites for optical imaging, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging, radio frequency (RF) signal detection, and geolocation.
Planet has 37 imaging satellites on this flight. Flock 4q will refresh the SuperDove constellation with three dozen of the 3U spacecraft which have medium-resolution imaging payloads. The opposite spacecraft from Planet is Pelican-1, an illustration of a brand new microsatellite design that can be used for high-resolution imaging. These Pelican satellites, which mass as much as 160 kilograms, will operate at a really low altitude of under 400 kilometers. This recent satellite bus may also be used for Planet’s upcoming Tanager hyperspectral imaging satellites.
GHGSat will increase the scale of its constellation with a trio of 16U satellites built by Spire that can be used for monitoring greenhouse gas emissions. GHGsat C-9 (Juba) & C-11 (Elliot) will detect methane emissions, while GHGSat C-10 (Vanguard) will detect carbon dioxide emissions. In August, GHGSat ordered 4 more of the 16U satellites from Spire for deployment no sooner than 2024.
UK company Open Cosmos has MANTIS, a 12U satellite generating 100 watts of power with a 2.5m resolution imaging payload and onboard AI capabilities. Open Cosmos also built PLATERO (6U), a spacecraft with a multispectral camera and IoT capabilities that’s funded by the federal government of the Andalusia region of Spain.
AAC Clyde Space has EPICHyper-3 (6U) with a hyperspectral payload that can deliver data for Canadian company Wyvern, which refers back to the satellite as Wyvern-3. GenMat has its first satellite GENMAT-1, a 6U spacecraft built by Exobotics, with a hyperspectral imager for mineralogical data acquisition.
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The 16U Observer-1A satellite from Nara Space. (Credit: Exolaunch)
South Korean company Nara Space has Observer-1A (16U) with a multi-spectral imaging payload that captures seven bands within the 450-900 nanometer range. French company ProtoMéthée has ProtoMéthée-1, a 16U satellite built by Nanoavionics with a MultiScape200 multispectral camera from Simera Sense. French company Aerospacelab has the 120-kilogram SPIP (multiSPectral Imagery Prototype) satellite which is able to display recent Earth commentary payloads.
Poland’s KP Labs has Intuition 1 (6U) equipped with a hyperspectral camera and on-board processing payloads. KP Labs also has an Antelope onboard computer that can run as a hosted payload on the D-Orbit ION vehicle. Polish company SatRev has STORK-7, a 3U satellite with a medium-resolution camera. STORK-7 can be testing perovskite solar cells, that are flexible and have the potential to be more cost effective than the solar cells currently used for spacecraft.
AMAN-1, a 3U spacecraft built by SatRev with an imaging payload, is Oman’s second attempt at putting its first satellite in orbit. The primary AMAN was lost on account of a failure of the Virgin Orbit rocket carrying it. South Korea’s JINJUSat-1 is a 2U satellite with an imaging payload from Jinju City, Korea testing Laboratory, and Gyeongsang National University. KAFASAT (3U), from the Republic of Korea Air Force Academy, has an imaging payload.
Two SAR constellations proceed to grow with more spacecraft on this flight. Finnish firm ICEYE continues to expand its constellation with 4 more Generation 3 compact SAR microsatellites, ICEYE 31//32/34/35, each with a mass of around 90 kilograms. Umbra is launching a pair of 83-kilogram microsatellites for its SAR constellation, Umbra 07 & 08.
There are several spacecraft on the flight for radio frequency (RF) signal detection.
SNC has the Vindlér satellite constellation, 4 Spire-built 6U satellites to detect and geolocate RF signals. French company Unseenlabs, which makes a speciality of RF signal detection and geolocation, has two satellites on board, BRO-10 and -11. Based on the scale of the deployers containing them, BRO-11 is probably going 6U but BRO-10 could possibly be a bigger CubeSat. Spire has its LEMUR 2 NANAZ (3U) satellite, which is able to show Spire’s capability to trace and gather information from terrestrial and space-based signals emitted by LEO constellations providing broadband web services, extending signal collection as much as 30GHz with enhanced capabilities.
The US Air Force Academy continues its FalconSAT program of experimental satellites with the FalconSAT-X microsatellite.
Japanese research institute RIKEN, with Mitsui Bussan Aerospace, has NinjaSat, a 6U spacecraft built by Nanoavionics to watch shiny X-ray sources.
Outpost has its Mission 2 “Debug As You Go” spacecraft (3U) that can test Outpost’s core bus technology, in addition to hosting payloads for NASA Langley (a small cool gas generator in support of NASA’s inflatable heat shield technology) and ETH Zurich (a GPS system).
Rogue Space Systems has Barry-1 (3U), an illustration satellite that can test the power of Rogue’s onboard computer to aggregate data from multiple sensors and process it in real-time. Barry-1 may also be testing propellantless IVO Quantum Drives. Web Think Tank has OMNI-LER1 (6U) to display blockchain transactions in low Earth orbit (LEO). Picacho is a 1U demonstration satellite from Lunasonde that can measure the facility spectral density of low-frequency radio signals within the ionosphere.
Slovakian company SpaceManic has Veronika (1U) with an amateur radio payload. HERON Mk. II (3U), the primary satellite from the University of Toronto Aerospace Team, is an academic mission to achieve experience with operating an amateur radio payload.
Other payloads on board include IRIS C2 (possibly from Satoro Taiwan), OrbAstro PC1, OrbAstro TR1, and Platform 5 (possibly from Endurosat).
This text can be updated after the launch as more payload information becomes available. Several of the businesses involved don’t release information before launch.