WASHINGTON — SpaceX launched the latest in its series of rideshare missions on Aug. 16, putting more than 100 satellites into orbit for commercial and government customers.
Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 2:56 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on the Transporter-11 mission. The booster rocket, on its 12th flight, landed at the launch site seven and a half minutes after liftoff.
Transporter-11 carried 116 payloads for a wide range of government and commercial customers, primarily by aggregators such as Exolaunch, ISISpace, Maverick Space Systems and SEOPS. Those payloads were deployed approximately 54 minutes after liftoff and continued for more than 90 minutes.
The largest single customer, in terms of number of payloads, was Planet, which had 36 of its Dove imaging cubesats at launch along with Tanager-1, its first hyperspectral imaging satellite.
Several other companies added satellites to their constellations at launch, including radar imaging companies Capella Space, Iceye, iQPS and Umbra. Satellogic launched three more imaging satellites, while Spire added seven Lemur satellites, four of which carry payloads for Internet of Things (IoT) company Myriota. HawkEye 360 and Unseenlabs also launched satellites to add to their fleets for radio frequency intelligence services.
At the launch, several companies launched their first operational satellites. Sateliot, a Spanish startup that plans to offer IoT services, launched its first four commercial satellites on Transporter-11. The company had previously launched two prototypes. Tomorrow.io included its first two satellites with microwave sounders for weather forecast services. Kuva Space, a Finnish startup, launched its first hyperspectral imaging satellite.
Transporter-11 also had a number of government customers. UK Space Command launched Tyche, a 150-kilogram imaging satellite built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. The satellite, which will provide sub-metre resolution imagery, is a precursor to a planned intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) constellation for the UK military.
NASA launched two technology demonstration cubesats, named PTD-R and PTD-4, aboard the Transporter-11 spacecraft. PTD-R will demonstrate ultraviolet and infrared imaging technologies, while PTD-4 will test a deployable solar array technology. NASA arranged the launch through ride-sharing aggregator SEOPS using the agency’s Vehicle Procurement Shared and Dedicated (VADR) contract.
The European Space Agency has flown two satellites on Transporter-11. The Arctic Weather Satellite is a prototype of a proposed constellation of small satellites that ESA would develop for the European meteorological agency Eumetsat to improve weather data collection in the Arctic, potentially allowing for more accurate near-term forecasting. The other, Φsat-2 or Phisat-2, is a technology demonstration cubesat to test the use of artificial intelligence to support Earth observation.
Two other 3U cubesats, a remote sensing mission called TORO and an IoT spacecraft called Nightjar, were developed by Taiwanese companies with support from Taiwan's space agency, TASA.
The satellites are the first phase of an effort by TASA to develop Taiwan’s space industry, TASA’s Chia-Ray Chen said in a talk Aug. 5 at the Small Satellite Conference in Logan, Utah. The two satellites were built over 18 months by Taiwanese companies, he said. TASA is now embarking on a second phase that will include building a small constellation of 8U cubesats with remote sensing, communications and IoT payloads. Those satellites are scheduled to launch in 2025 and 2026.
Surpassing the 1,000 payload mark
Transporter-11 was SpaceX's third exclusive rideshare mission of the year, following Transporter-10 in March and Band-1 Carthe first mission to a medium inclination orbit, in April. These missions remain a boon for small satellite developers given the cadence and launches and prices that SpaceX charges, while they are a nightmare for small launch vehicle developers who find it difficult to compete at those prices.
The launch brings to more than 1,000 the number of satellites deployed through SpaceX’s rideshare program. In a presentation during a side session at the Small Satellite Conference on Aug. 7, Jarrod McLachlan, SpaceX’s director of commercial sales, said the company had launched more than 980 satellites as rideshares on 22 missions. That includes both dedicated rideshare missions and launches that accommodated rideshares alongside a primary payload.
The company is planning a regular cadence of three Transporter and two Bandwagon rideshare-dedicated missions per year, he said. SpaceX will also offer additional rideshare services on launches with excess capacity, which he noted includes opportunities for missions to geostationary transfer orbits and translunar injection trajectories.
SpaceX used the conference last year to reveal his Bandwagon quest lineBut it made no similar announcements at this year’s event. The company is continuing a pricing strategy in which it increases the cost per kilogram of ride-sharing payloads, which currently cost $6,000, by $500 a year, a move it said is intended to adjust for inflation.
The company is putting a new emphasis on what it calls “cake topper” payloads, or large satellites that can be launched on rideshare missions by sitting on top of the payload adapter — hence the name. “This is really our standard for larger payloads,” he said, covering those weighing between 500 and 2,500 kilograms and responding to customers whose satellites had grown too large to use existing payload accommodations.
SpaceX has flown three rideshare missions with cake topper payloads so far, he said, noting that the design also supports a “full stack” of smaller rideshares underneath. Unlike standard rideshare payloads, which can be booked online, cake topper payloads require more customization. “We don’t have standard pricing for cake toppers. They tend to be more expensive and a little bit more customized as well,” he said.
