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The second stage for this mission sported a grey stripe used to help maintain propellant temperatures during longer missions. The stage conducted its first burn of a little less than six minutes to reach an elliptical parking orbit, then performed a short four second circularization burn 50 minutes after launch to reach the first SSO deployment orbit at an altitude of approximately 510 by 520 kilometers and inclination of 97.45 degrees. More than three-quarters of the satellites were released in this orbit beginning 53 minutes after launch.<\/p>\n
An hour and 45 minutes after launch, the second stage began another sequence of two one-second burns to reach the second payload deployment orbit at an altitude of approximately 590 by 600 kilometers and inclination of 97.75 degrees. Deployment of the remaining satellites began about two and a half hours after launch.<\/p>\n
After releasing the remaining satellites, the second stage conducted a final burn to deorbit.<\/p>\n
This was the 21st Falcon mission of the year for SpaceX. The company is continuing to launch at a rapid pace, with this being the second of three flights in 20 hours. The next flight, a Starlink mission, launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida while Transporter-10 was still deploying its payloads. The next SpaceX rideshare will be the first of the Bandwagon missions launching to mid-inclination orbit from Cape Canaveral in April.<\/p>\n
NASA mission updates
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Mission Overview<\/p>\n
This was the tenth dedicated rideshare mission organized by SpaceX, with payloads ranging in size from picosatellites of less than a kilogram that are only a few centimeters on a side to satellites massing a few hundred kilograms. While most of the payloads were released directly from the launch vehicle, there are two new Orbital Transfer Vehicles from Space Machines and Atomos which may later release more spacecraft. Rideshare integrators handling payloads on this flight include Exolaunch, Maverick, and SEOPS.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\nOptimus-2 OTV. (Credit: Space Machines Company)<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s Space Machines Company is launching Optimus-2, its first Optimus OTV. Payloads on board include an inertial navigation system from Advanced Navigation, a space domain awareness camera from HEO Robotics, a hyperspectral camera from Esper, an in-space image processor from Spiral Blue, a network processor from Dandelion, and an AI processor from ANT61.<\/p>\n
Argentina\u2019s Satellogic has another high-resolution optical and hyperspectral satellite, NuSat-44, adding to its constellation of about two dozen spacecraft. ICEYE has the X36, X-37, and X-38 synthetic aperture radar microsatellites, bringing their constellation to around 30 spacecraft in orbit.<\/p>\n
Lynk Global has Tower 5 and Tower 6, a pair of 85-kilogram satellites for direct-to-device connectivity. This pair of satellites will join the three Lynk spacecraft already on orbit to provide messaging services for cell phones.<\/p>\n
Luxembourg\u2019s OQ Technology add to its constellation Tiger-7 and Tiger-8, a pair of 6U CubeSats for providing 5G Internet of things communications.<\/p>\n
The volume of CubeSats is usually given in units (\u201cU\u201d) of 10 by 10 by 10 centimeters. For example, a 6U CubeSat would measure 10 by 20 by 30 centimeters. The volume of PocketQubes is usually given in P units of five by five by five centimeters, so a 2P PocketQube measures five by five by 10 centimeters.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n