SpaceX Launches 119 Payloads on the Transporter-16 Rideshare Mission

Photo: SpaceX

SpaceX launched 119 payloads into Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) at 4:02 a.m. PT on Transporter-16, a devoted smallsat rideshare mission, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Monday morning.

The mission was the primary stage booster’s 12^th flight. It landed vertically on a droneship within the Pacific Ocean after releasing its payloads.

With this mission, SpaceX has orbited over 1,600 payloads in its rideshare program.

A Bumper Crop for Exolaunch

German launch integrator Exolaunch carried 26 microsatellites and 31 cubesats from over 25 shoppers on the mission, it stated in a Monday assertion. It used a wide range of deployment programs, together with CarboNIX microsatellite separation rings for satellites as much as 1,000 kg and EXOpod Nova deployers for normal and bigger cubesats.

Its checklist of spacecraft on the mission included:

AAC Clyde Space launched the primary two satellites in its VIREON Earth Observation constellation. The firm stated in an announcement that it’s going to check and calibrate their onboard programs earlier than bringing them to operational standing within the coming weeks or months.

Three satellites, ERMIS-1, ERMIS-2, and ERMIS-3, had been launched within the ERMIS cubesat constellation developed in Greece. OQ Technology subsidiary OQ Technology Hellas constructed two of the satellites, which will likely be used at the side of the OQ Technology fleet to supply 5G non-terrestrial community (NTN) IoT service and direct-to-device (D2D) emergency broadcast messaging on to smartphones. The ERMIS constellation is the primary section of the Greek National Small Satellite Programme.

DISCO-2, a local weather satellite tv for pc constructed by Danish college college students in collaboration with Space Inventor to observe glacier exercise and sea temperature change close to Greenland, was additionally aboard the mission. Space Inventor additionally launched a second satellite tv for pc for a confidential protection mission, it stated in an announcement on Friday.

Exolaunch’s assertion stated it manifested six satellites for Iceye. The General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces stated in an X post that Transporter-16 included two ICEYE radar satellites for the Polish navy. The satellites will likely be a part of POLSARIS, a sovereign Polish Earth Observation constellation.

Other Exolaunch clients included two Flylab satellites for French analysis lab ONERA; three satellites for HawkEye 360, three Vindlér radio frequency monitoring satellites for Sierra Nevada Corporation constructed by Muon Space; and 10 satellites for Spire.

Customers with a single satellite tv for pc embody Aethero Space, Greece’s Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Indian startup Bellatrix Aerospace, Cosmoworks in South Korea, Endurosat working with the Arquimea Research Center SLU, Satlantis and OHB Sweden, ArkEdge Space, TurkSat, and France’s Unseenlabs.

Exolaunch manifested a variety of satellites from clients in Taiwan together with TORO3 for Pyras, 8U RIoT-2 for Rapidtek, and T.MicroSat-2 for Tron Future Tech and Taiwan Space Agency.

Exolaunch stated it additionally supplied deployment and integration providers for: Fergani’s FGN-100-d3 satellite tv for pc; Muon Space’s PropSat; OHB Sweden’s ADIS satellite tv for pc; two NewSat satellites for Satellogic, and eight satellites in OHB Italia‘s IRIDE constellation.

Other Customers

Texas-based launch integrator SEOPS ready 19 buyer spacecraft from 13 international locations on the mission, together with 5 PocketQubes from Alba Orbital and 14 cubesats of various sizes. FOSSA Systems, ISISPACE, Close toSpace Launch, RIDE!, and Sandia National Laboratories additionally manifested spacecraft with SEOPS.

D-Orbit supported 4 payloads for LusoSpace, the QubitCore quantum key distribution (QKD) payload for Qubitrium, and the Camera SpaceMast payload for Germany’s DLR.

SatVu manifested HotSat-2, the second satellite tv for pc in a constellation for thermal imaging. The constellation makes use of mid-wave infrared sensing for protection, financial, and local weather functions.

K2 Space launched Gravitas, a two-ton satellite tv for pc able to producing a outstanding 20 kW of electrical energy. K2 Space CEO Karan Kunjur informed TechCrunch this month that the Gravitas mission will embody 12 undisclosed modules from a number of clients, together with the Department of Defense. One of these clients is SES, which confirmed to Via Satellite it has a number of payloads on the mission.

Momentus launched its Vigoride 7 orbital service automobile to check and exhibit a sequence of next-generation capabilities, it stated in a Monday press launch. It plans to host and function 10 authorities and business payloads for demonstrations of autonomous rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO), in‑area meeting applied sciences, communications programs, and onboard computing.

Varda launched samples of thermal safety supplies and an autonomous navigation system within its W-6 automobile, in addition to thermal and efficiency sensors for NASA information assortment, it stated in a Monday assertion.