Tag: Rideshare
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Arianespace announces competition for free nanosatellite launch
Spectators in Kourou, French Guiana, watch as an Ariane 5 rocket launches three commercial satellites from the Guiana Space Center in August 2020. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – S. Martin Arianespace announced this week it is organizing a contest open to startups, labs, and universities for a free launch of a…
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Transporter-1 debuts new SpaceX rideshare program, world record
SpaceX launched their third mission of 2021 and the first of many planned Smallsat Rideshare Program missions, which are designed by the company to give small satellite operators the chance to launch together as a way to reduce cost on regularly scheduled flights to frequently used orbits. The flight, called Transporter-1, lifted off with a…
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Spaceflight Inc. fills out its line of Sherpa orbital transfer vehicles for small satellites
An artist’s conception shows Spaceflight’s Sherpa-FX in orbit. (Spaceflight Illustration) Seattle-based Spaceflight Inc. today unveiled two new options for its Sherpa orbital transfer vehicle — one that uses an environmentally friendly chemical thruster system to help get small satellites where they need to go, and another that’s powered by an electric propulsion system. Such options…
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SpaceX Breaks Record with Booster’s Sixth Flight
SpaceX has broken another reuse record on the Starlink v1.0 L10 mission. For the first time, a Falcon 9 first stage has launched a sixth mission, this one carrying three rideshare payloads along with a batch of Starlink satellites. Liftoff of the eleventh overall Starlink mission, and the tenth launch of the Version 1.0 satellites,…
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Spaceflight Inc Evolving Sherpa for Future Rideshare Missions
Spaceflight Inc. has announced that a brand new Orbital Transfer Vehicle, Sherpa-FX, will fly on a dedicated rideshare mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. This is the first of many next-generation transfer vehicles created by Spaceflight Inc. The Sherpa-FX is a next-generation transfer vehicle capable of multiple deployments, providing independent and detailed deployment telemetry,…
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SpaceX launches first Starlink rideshare mission with Planet Labs
As SpaceX continues to roll through its 2020 launch campaign, the company launched another batch of Starlink internet satellites to low Earth orbit, along with 3 small satellites provided by Planet Labs Inc. The mission launched on a flight-proven Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida…
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Planet reserves rideshare slots on SpaceX Starlink launches
Two SkySat satellites receive their supply of “green” propellant before a launch on a Vega rocket from French Guiana in 2016. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – P. Baudon Three of Planet’s commercial SkySat Earth-imaging spacecraft will ride to space on top of a stack of SpaceX Starlink satellites next month aboard…
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Planet Labs SkySats to rideshare with SpaceX Starlink launches
Planet Labs Inc. has announced they will launch six SkySat satellites, SkySats 16-21, on Falcon 9 rockets as rideshare missions on two Starlink launches. These six satellites will help provide Planet with more imaging coverage to complement the 15 other SkySat satellites, SkySat 1-15, in Sun-Synchronous Orbits (SSO). (Lead Image: Julia Bergeron, NSF) Over the…
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Spaceflight Industries strikes deal to sell rideshare launch business; will focus on BlackSky satellites
One of Spaceflight Industries’ most notable projects was the launch of 64 satellites aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in December 2018. (SpaceX Photo) Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries says it has signed a deal to sell Spaceflight Inc., its satellite rideshare launch subsidiary, to one of Japan’s largest trading companies. The definitive share purchase agreement, reached…
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Starlink to fill lion’s share of SpaceX near-term launch manifest
Artist’s concept of a Starlink satellite with its solar array wing unfurled. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX plans as many as 24 launches next year to build out the company’s Starlink network to provide broadband Internet service from space, following up to four more Starlink missions before the end of this year, according to SpaceX’s chief operating…