{"id":19047,"date":"2017-03-02T19:35:19","date_gmt":"2017-03-02T11:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/citing-schedule-slips-spaceflight-rebooks-89-satellites-on-spacexs-launch-list\/"},"modified":"2017-03-02T19:35:19","modified_gmt":"2017-03-02T11:35:19","slug":"citing-schedule-slips-spaceflight-rebooks-89-satellites-on-spacexs-launch-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/citing-schedule-slips-spaceflight-rebooks-89-satellites-on-spacexs-launch-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Citing schedule slips, Spaceflight rebooks 89 satellites on SpaceX\u2019s launch list"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Spaceflight
Spaceflight\u2019s SHERPA carrier is designed to deploy scores of satellites. (Spaceflight Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For more than a year, Seattle-based Spaceflight has been waiting to launch an array of 89 miniaturized satellites aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and deploy them in orbit from its innovative SHERPA carrier.<\/p>\n

Now the launch logistics company isn\u2019t waiting any longer.<\/p>\n

All 89 satellites have been rebooked due to schedule concerns, Spaceflight\u2019s president, Curt Blake, reported today in a blog posting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found each of our customers an alternative launch that was within the same time frame,\u201d Blake wrote. \u201cIt took a huge effort, but within two weeks, the team hustled to have all customers who wanted to be rebooked confirmed on other launches!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The SHERPA carrier had been slated as a secondary payload on the launch of Taiwan\u2019s Formosat-5 satellite. It was put on SpaceX\u2019s manifest since 2015, but the launch has been repeatedly delayed, in part due to the Falcon 9 rocket mishaps that occurred in mid-2015 and last September.<\/p>\n

Spaceflight was anticipating that the launch would finally take place around May or June, but Blake said SpaceX \u201crecently communicated their 2017 manifest, and the impact on the Formosat-5 mission is significant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe learned our launch would occur potentially much later than expected,\u201d he said. By some accounts, the Formosat-5 mission has been shifted into 2018. That\u2019s what led Spaceflight to look at alternatives.<\/p>\n

Neither Blake nor Jodi Sorensen, a spokeswoman for Spaceflight Industries, laid out the details of the schedule shifts. Sorensen told GeekWire that the arrangements with SpaceX were still being worked out.<\/p>\n

The payloads that had been scheduled for deployment from the SHERPA carrier include Planetary Resources\u2019 Arkyd 6 satellite, which is designed to test a midwave-infrared imaging system; and the Pathfinder-2 satellite, an Earth-observing spacecraft that serves as a prototype for Spaceflight Industries\u2019 BlackSky constellation.<\/p>\n

Spaceflight\u2019s dedicated-rideshare launch on a different Falcon 9 is unaffected by the SHERPA shift.<\/p>\n

SpaceX isn\u2019t the only launch provider that Spaceflight works with. In the past, the company has facilitated the placement of payloads on India\u2019s PSLV rockets, Orbital Sciences\u2019 Antares rocket and Cygnus capsule, and Russian rockets as well.<\/p>\n