Tag: Rideshare
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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…
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SpaceX sweetens the deal for satellite rideshare launches, and Starlink is in on it
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket executes a 64-satellite launch for Seattle-based Spaceflight in December 2018. Now SpaceX is planning rideshare missions without Spaceflight’s involvement. (SpaceX Photo) Three weeks after announcing that it’s getting into the rideshare market for launching small satellites, SpaceX slashed its prices by more than half – and said it’ll be offering rideshare…
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Spaceflight strikes a deal to put rideshare satellites on Relativity Space’s rocket
An artist’s conception shows Relativity Space’s Terran 1 rocket lifting off from Launch Complex 16 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. (Relativity Space Illustration) Seattle-based Spaceflight has signed a launch services agreement to put payloads on Relativity Space’s Terran 1 rocket. Relativity, a startup that got its start in Seattle but is now headquartered in…
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Photos: Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Vandenberg on SSO-A rideshare mission
The first of two launches by SpaceX this week lifted off Monday, Dec. 3, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California carrying 64 microsatellites and CubeSats to an orbit more than 350 miles (575 kilometers) above Earth. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 10:34:05 a.m. PST (1:34:05 p.m. EST; 1834:05 GMT) Monday from Space…
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Photos: Twice-flown Falcon 9 rocket prepared for third mission
SpaceX is readying a Falcon 9 rocket booster for launch Monday at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on a record-setting mission with 64 smallsats on-board that will also mark the launch provider’s first use of the same first stage for a third flight. The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket is set for liftoff at 10:31:47 a.m. PST…
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Spaceflight’s 64-satellite rideshare mission set to last five hours
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Falcon 9 rocket launched on the SSO-A mission at 10:34:05 a.m. PST (1:34:05 p.m. EST; 1834:05 GMT) Monday, Dec. 3. Story updated at 4 p.m. EST (2100 GMT) to remove ROSE 1 from the payload list. Video credit: Spaceflight Industries When SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket takes off with 64 small satellites — a payload…
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SpaceX launches swarm of satellites, flies rocket for third time
A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off Monday at 10:34 a.m. PST (1:34 p.m. EST; 1834 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Credit: SpaceX Setting new commercial launch and satellite industry records, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled by a first stage booster launched and recovered two times before soared…
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Timeline of Falcon 9’s launch on the SSO-A mission
Follow the key events of the Falcon 9 rocket’s ascent to orbit with 64 smallsats on Spaceflight’s SSO-A: SmallSat Express rideshare mission. The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket will lift off Monday at 10:31 a.m. PST (1:31 p.m. EST; 1831 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Data source: SpaceX T-0:00:00:…