On Monday, March 4, 2024, SpaceX will launch the Transporter-10 rideshare mission from House Launch Advanced 4E at Vandenberg House Drive Base (VSFB). Liftoff is scheduled at 2:05 PM PST (22:05 UTC). If wanted, there’s a backup launch alternative the following day on the similar time.
Deployment of payloads from the second stage to 2 Solar-synchronous orbits (SSO) at altitudes of roughly 520 kilometers and 600 kilometers will start virtually an hour after launch and final till two hours and 33 minutes after launch, together with transferring to the second orbit.
There can be 48 deployment occasions from Falcon 9, releasing 51 spacecraft, a few of that are orbital switch automobiles (OTVs) carrying different satellites for later deployment. SpaceX has introduced the overall variety of payloads on the flight as 53.
The booster used for this flight is B1081-5, which has beforehand flown Crew-7, CRS-29, PACE, and a Starlink mission. After stage separation, the booster will return to land on Touchdown Zone 4 at VSFB. Assist ship GO Past will recuperate the payload fairing halves downrange within the Pacific Ocean.
The second stage will conduct its first burn of rather less than six minutes to achieve an elliptical parking orbit, then carry out a brief 4 second circularization burn 50 minutes after launch to achieve the primary SSO deployment orbit at an altitude of roughly 510 by 520 kilometers and inclination of 97.45 levels. Greater than three-quarters of the satellites can be launched on this orbit starting 53 minutes after launch.
An hour and 45 minutes after launch, the second stage will start one other two burn sequence to achieve the second payload deployment orbit at an altitude of roughly 590 by 600 kilometers and inclination of 97.75 levels. Deployment of the remaining satellites will start about two and a half hours after launch.
After releasing the remaining satellites, the second stage will conduct a last burn to deorbit.
This would be the twenty first Falcon mission of the yr for SpaceX. The corporate is continuous to launch at a speedy tempo, with this being the second of a potential three flights in as little as 20 hours. The following flight, a Starlink mission, will launch from Cape Canaveral House Drive Station in Florida later the identical day. The following SpaceX rideshare would be the first of the Bandwagon missions launching to mid-inclination orbit from Cape Canaveral in April.
Mission Overview
This would be the tenth devoted rideshare mission organized by SpaceX, with payloads ranging in dimension from picosatellites of lower than a kilogram which might be only some centimeters on a aspect to satellites massing just a few hundred kilograms. Whereas many of the payloads can be launched instantly from the launch car, there are two new Orbital Switch Automobiles from House Machines and Atomos which can later launch extra spacecraft. Rideshare integrators dealing with payloads on this flight embrace Exolaunch, Maverick, and SEOPS.
Optimus-2 OTV. (Credit score: House Machines Firm)
Australia’s House Machines Firm is launching Optimus-2, its first Optimus OTV. Payloads on board embrace an inertial navigation system from Superior Navigation, an area area consciousness digital camera from HEO Robotics, a hyperspectral digital camera from Esper, an in-space picture processor from Spiral Blue, a community processor from Dandelion, and an AI processor from ANT61.
Argentina’s Satellogic has one other high-resolution optical and hyperspectral satellite tv for pc, NuSat-44, including to its constellation of about two dozen spacecraft. ICEYE has the X36, X-37, and X-38 artificial aperture radar microsatellites, bringing their constellation to round 30 spacecraft in orbit.
Lynk World has Tower 5 and Tower 6, a pair of 85-kilogram satellites for direct-to-device connectivity. This pair of satellites will launch stacked collectively, and can be a part of the three Lynk spacecraft already on orbit to supply messaging companies for cell telephones.
Luxembourg’s OQ Know-how add to its constellation Tiger-7 and Tiger-8, a pair of 6U CubeSats for offering 5G Web of issues communications.
The amount of CubeSats is normally given in items (“U”) of 10 by 10 by 10 centimeters. For instance, a 6U CubeSat would measure 10 by 20 by 30 centimeters. The amount of PocketQubes is normally given in P items of 5 by 5 by 5 centimeters, so a 2P PocketQube measures 5 by 5 by 10 centimeters.
Atomos House has Mission 1, that includes the primary of their Quark orbital switch automobiles. The Quark-LITE spacecraft (Meson-1) will carry the Gluon-1 satellite tv for pc that may later separate from Quark after which function a goal for rendezvous and proximity operations, docking, and refueling demonstrations. Every of the 2 spacecraft will mass round 100 kilograms.
Loft Orbital has the 90 kilogram YAM-6 satellite tv for pc with hyperspectral and multi-spectral imagers, which is able to help a Digital Mission functionality that permits builders to deploy software program functions to the satellite tv for pc with interfaces to help use of the onboard sensors.
The Environmental Protection Fund’s 366-kilogram MethaneSat can be used to gather and distribute observations of methane emissions, specializing in areas with oil and fuel manufacturing. The satellite tv for pc can gather information over a 200-kilometer-wide swath at a decision of 100 x 400 meters per pixel. Different methane detection satellites launched just lately have a lot larger decision but in addition a a lot narrower discipline of view. The federal government of New Zealand contributed to the mission, and mission management can be dealt with from that nation after preliminary commissioning by Ball Aerospace, who led spacecraft manufacturing.
Methane plumes detected by Orbital Sidekick’s GHOSt satellites. (Credit score: Orbital Sidekick)
Orbital Sidekick is including the GHOSt-4 and GHOSt-5 satellites to their hyperspectral imaging constellation. These 90 kilogram spacecraft can detect methane emissions with eight meter decision.
Spanish agency Satlantis has HORACIO, a 16U Earth statement CubeSat, with a high-resolution multi-spectral imaging payload supporting missions similar to detecting greenhouse fuel emissions. CONTEC of Korea has ContecSat-1/Oreum, a 16U optical Earth statement spacecraft constructed by NanoAvionics.
Axelspace of Japan has their 145-kilogram PYXIS spacecraft demonstrating the brand new satellite tv for pc bus for his or her AxelLiner service and next-generation sensors for his or her AxelGlobe imaging constellation. It additionally carries a satellite tv for pc radio demonstration from SONY and is supplied with two D-SAIL drag membranes that may be deployed to hurry up reentry at finish of mission.
Unseenlabs of France has BRO-12 and BRO-13, two extra of its radio frequency sensing/alerts intelligence (SIGINT) satellites, which appear to have moved from the earlier 6U type issue to a brand new 8U dimension. These will be a part of 9 satellites from the corporate already in orbit.
Aerospacelab satellites present process integration onto Transporter rideshare plates. (Credit score: Exolaunch)
French firm Aerospacelab has 4 100-kilogram class microsatellites on this flight. Three of these have SIGINT payloads whereas the fourth has a excessive decision optical imaging payload.
UK-based OrbAstro has OrbAstro-TR2, a 6U CubeSat, to exhibit radio frequency payloads. Spire World has constructed and can function a pair of 16U LEMUR-2 CubeSats for Hubble, which is creating a satellite tv for pc community to attach with BlueTooth units on Earth. Hubble refers to those spacecraft as Hubble-1 and Hubble-2. Spire additionally has two extra LEMUR-2 spacecraft on the flight that look like 3U in dimension based mostly on the deployer containing them.
RROCI-2 from Orion House Options is a 12U CubeSat demonstration for the US House Drive to supply cloud characterization climate information supporting the Division of Protection. This replaces the preliminary Electro Optical/Infrared Climate System Speedy Revisit Optical Cloud Imager (EWS-RROCI) spacecraft which didn’t deploy on the Transporter-6 mission in early 2023.
MuSat-2 from Muon House may even exhibit climate information assortment for the Division of Protection. This 67-kilogram satellite tv for pc will embrace GNSS occultation and reflectometry sensors amongst its payloads and can present info similar to ocean wind pace, soil moisture merchandise, and ionospheric information.
A Jackal spacecraft within the cleanroom. (Credit score: True Anomaly)
Colorado Springs-based True Anomaly has an indication mission with their first two Jackal spacecraft, massing round 275 kilograms every. These automobiles will carry out rendezvous and proximity operations whereas taking multi-spectral imagery of one another. True Anomaly is focusing on the protection marketplace for missions similar to house area consciousness and house operations coaching.
Quantum House has the 6U Sentry/Scout-1, an area situational consciousness demonstrator with an optical payload to look at different objects in house. UK agency Open Cosmos has IOD-6 Hammer, a 6U CubeSat, with a hyperspectral imager, AI edge processer from Ubotica, and an inter-satellite hyperlink payload.
Sidus House, based mostly on the Florida House Coast, has LizzieSat-1. This 100-kilogram class spacecraft will host payloads together with optical and hyperspectral imaging, AIS, and edge computing. Los Angeles based mostly spacecraft producer Apex has their first satellite tv for pc, Aries-1, which is a 100 kilogram bus that may carry as much as 100 kilograms of payload. This mission has payloads from Orbit Fab, Ubotica, and a protection contractor.
Lockheed Martin and Terran Orbital have the Pony Specific 2 mission, a pair of 12U CubeSats (PE2-SV1/Tyvak-0261 and PE2-SV2/Tyvak-0262) that may exhibit payloads similar to satellite tv for pc RF crosslinks, ranging, synchronization, and AI processing whereas flying in formation a number of kilometers aside.
NASA’s PY4 mission has 4 similar 1.5U CubeSats that may exhibit spacecraft-to-spacecraft ranging, on-orbit relative navigation, and coordinated multi-point radiation measurements utilizing low dimension, weight, energy, and value (SWaP-C) satellites.
The Transporter-10 payload stack. Annotations by (Picture Credit score: SpaceX)
CBAS-LCE is a pair of 6U CubeSats from the US Navy and Missile Protection Company that may consider optical laser communications in house and space-to-Earth community protocols. Portugal’s CEIIA has AEROS/MH-1, a 3U CubeSat with RGB and hyperspectral imaging that may function a pathfinder for ocean statement missions.
Germany’s Julius Maximilian College of Würzburg has SONATE-2, a 6U+ CubeSat with imaging and AI payloads. Taiwan’s SATORO in partnership with Nationwide Cheng Kung College have IRIS-F1, a 3U CubeSat expertise demonstration mission that features an AIS system.
Missouri College of Science and Know-how has M3, a 3U CubeSat that may check a propulsion system. M3 doesn’t generate energy and the mission will final a few days till the batteries are depleted. Care Climate has Veery-0E “Ectobius,” a 1U CubeSat, with a small radar payload and an novice radio payload that can be operated by the BYU Spacecraft Membership.
Mongolia’s ONDO House has OWLSAT-1 and OWLSAT-2, a pair of 0.5U CubeSats with novice radio payloads. Payload info for the flight can be up to date as extra info turns into out there. Some corporations don’t present info earlier than the launch.
Notes on earlier Transporter missions
Transporter-6: The D-Orbit ION car launched on Jan. 3, 2023 lastly launched 4 satellites for Astrocast in a collection of deployments from late November by way of January.
Transporter-8: The capsule from the Varda W-1 mission, launched in June, landed in Utah on Feb. 21 after having its reentry delayed for a number of months by licensing points.
Transporter-9: The AMAN-1/Stork-7, JinjuSat-1, and Picacho satellites didn’t launch from their CubeSat deployer which was built-in by Momentus. The Mira car from Impulse House has carried out a minimum of 5 burns of its thrusters, elevating the semi-major axis of its orbit by a complete of roughly seven kilometers. The Exotrail spacevan 001 car doesn’t seem to have maneuvered but. Of the 113 whole spacecraft anticipated on the mission, 95 have appeared within the satellite tv for pc catalog to date, with some nonetheless on board the D-Orbit ION car.
(Lead Picture: Falcon 9 at SLC-4E forward of SDA Tranche 0 Flight 1. Credit score: Jack Beyer for NSF)
