{"id":10720,"date":"2022-01-13T22:46:06","date_gmt":"2022-01-13T14:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-launches-105-customer-satellites-on-third-transporter-rideshare-mission\/"},"modified":"2022-01-13T22:46:06","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T14:46:06","slug":"spacex-launches-105-customer-satellites-on-third-transporter-rideshare-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-launches-105-customer-satellites-on-third-transporter-rideshare-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX launches 105 customer satellites on third Transporter rideshare mission"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to begin the Transporter 3 small satellite rideshare mission. Credit: Michael Cain \/ Spaceflight Now \/ Coldlife Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SpaceX launched 105 small satellites from Cape Canaveral on the company\u2019s third Transporter rideshare mission Thursday, deploying payloads for commercial remote sensing companies, communications and data relay startups, and foreign governments.<\/p>\n

Eight-and-a-half minutes after launch, the rocket\u2019s first stage booster made a return to the Florida spaceport, nailing a propulsive landing at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station accompanied by a crackling double sonic boom.<\/p>\n

The successful launch was SpaceX\u2019s second Falcon 9 rocket flight this year.<\/p>\n

The mission began with a fiery blastoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral at 10:25:39 a.m. EST (1525:39 GMT) Thursday. Nine Merlin 1D engines, combining to generate 1.7 million pounds of thrust, powered the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) launcher into a crystal clear sky.<\/p>\n

Heading downrange to the south-southeast, the rocket surpassed the speed of sound and then shed its first stage section nearly two-and-a-half minutes into the flight. An upper stage engine took over the flight as the booster stage pulsed cold gas nitrogen-fed thrusters to flip around and fire three of its Merlin powerplants to reverse course and return to Cape Canaveral.<\/p>\n

Thanks to clear skies, the aerobatic flip maneuver and boost-back burn were spectacularly visible to observers on the ground. The rocket\u2019s dueling exhaust plumes created a cloud of vapor high up in the mid-morning sky.<\/p>\n

The upper stage continued into orbit with a six-minute burn of its Merlin engine, flying a course parallel to Florida\u2019s east coast, then over Cuba and the Caribbean Sea. The rocket jettisoned its clamshell-like payload fairing during the orbit insertion burn, while the first stage arced to an apogee, or high point, of about 87 miles (141 kilometers) before beginning its descent back to Earth.<\/p>\n

An entry burn helped slow the booster\u2019s plunge, and finally a single engine lit for a final braking maneuver as the rocket unfurled its landing gear to settle for a helicopter-like precision vertical touchdown at Landing Zone 1, around 9 miles (13 kilometers) south of the mission\u2019s liftoff location.<\/p>\n

The landing capped the 10th trip to space for SpaceX Booster No. 1058, which debuted in May 2020 with the company\u2019s first flight with astronauts \u2014 NASA\u2019s Crew Dragon Demo-2 test flight \u2014 to the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

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A Falcon 9 rocket streaks downrange on the Transporter 3 mission. Credit: Michael Cain \/ Spaceflight Now \/ Coldlife Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The upper stage shut off its engine just as the booster stage landed, beginning a coast halfway around the world, soaring over Antarctica and then heading northbound over the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n

A brief two-second restart of the upper stage engine placed the rocket at the correct altitude and inclination for deployment of the mission\u2019s 105 payloads. The mission started separating its payloads at an altitude of 333 miles (536 kilometers) in a polar orbit.<\/p>\n

The half-hour deployment sequence included separation of 99 individual satellites from the Falcon 9\u2019s payload stack. Another six satellites were mounted to a carrier spacecraft that will release its passengers later.<\/p>\n

The mission Thursday, known as Transporter 3, followed SpaceX\u2019s first two Transporter rideshare flights in 2022.<\/p>\n

SpaceX announced its small satellite rideshare launch service in 2019. SpaceX intends to launch as many as four dedicated ridehsare flights on Falcon 9 rockets this year, doubling the rate of Transporter launches from about one every six months to one every three-to-four months.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s high demand for the rideshare launch service. Several SpaceX customers have said the price for a slot on a Transporter mission is unmatched in the launch industry.<\/p>\n

On its website, SpaceX says it charges customers as little as $1 million to launch a payload of 440 pounds (200 kilograms) on a dedicated rideshare flight to sun-synchronous orbit. The price is enabled by cost reductions from reusing Falcon 9 rocket hardware.<\/p>\n

Companies like Berlin-based Exolaunch, the Italian launch broker D-Orbit, and Spaceflight in Seattle reserved ports on the Transporter 3 payload stack, then divided that capacity among multiple small satellite customers.<\/p>\n

D-Orbit had its own satellite carrier mounted on the Transporter 3 payload stack. The company\u2019s ION SCV004 vehicle separated from the Falcon 9 rocket to later release its own satellite passengers.<\/p>\n

The payloads on-board the Transporter 3 mission ranged from smaller than a soda can to the size of a washing machine.<\/p>\n

The biggest of the group was the Ukrainian Sich 2-1 satellite, a 375-pound (170-kilogram) government-funded Earth-imaging spacecraft delayed for years by political and economic turmoil in Ukraine, largely driven by the country\u2019s conflict with Russia.<\/p>\n

The Sich 2-1 satellite, also named Sich 2-30, was built by the Ukrainian company Yuzhnoye. It hosts a medium-resolution imaging payload to take pictures of Earth\u2019s surface in visible and near-infrared wavelengths, collecting data useful in urban planning, crop management, and environmental monitoring.<\/p>\n

Radar remote sensing satellites were also part of the Transporter 3 payload package.<\/p>\n

Two satellites reach for Finland\u2019s ICEYE and the U.S. company Capella were stowed inside the Falcon 9 rocket\u2019s payload shroud. Both companies are building out fleets of small satellites using radar beams to regularly map the world\u2019s land masses, oceans, and ice sheets.<\/p>\n

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A team from Exolaunch, a German small satellite rideshare integrator and broker, poses with some of the small satellites set for takeoff on SpaceX\u2019s Transporter 3 mission. Credit: Exolaunch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Radar imaging doesn\u2019t provide as much color or detail as optical remote sensing, but radar satellites come with the benefit of being sensitive day or night, and in all weather conditions.<\/p>\n

Images from ICEYE and Capella are sharp enough for analysts to pick out ships, buildings, and other features on Earth\u2019s surface smaller than 1 meter (3 feet) in size.<\/p>\n

ICEYE\u2019s two new satellites joined 13 others already in the company\u2019s constellation. Each satellite weighs about 187 pounds (85 kilograms), and carries a radar antenna that will unfold once it\u2019s in orbit.<\/p>\n

Capella, a competitor to ICEYE, also added two satellites to its fleet with the Transporter 3 mission. The new additions, each about 220 pounds (100 kilograms) at launch, join five satellites already in Capella\u2019s commercial fleet providing radar imagery to the U.S. military and other customers.<\/p>\n

Another radar remote sensing company, Umbra, also had a satellite on-board the Transporter 3 mission. Umbra\u2019s second satellite follows a first spacecraft launched on Transporter 2 last year.<\/p>\n

Like the ICEYE and Capella satellites, the 143-pound (65-kilogram) Umbra satellite will unfurl a radar antenna after separating from the Falcon 9 rocket. Umbra is also building out a fleet of satellites, which it says will be capable of capturing the highest-resolution radar images of any commercial constellation at just 6 inches (15 centimeters).<\/p>\n