SpaceX Launches 88 Satellites in Ridesharing Mission
Tags: Spacex, Space Exploration, Satellite Technology, Mission, Elon Musk

SpaceX successfully launched 88 satellites

into polar orbit under the Transporter-2 mission. This is SpaceX’s second dedicated mission under the SmallSat Rideshare program, which intends to launch satellites from different companies and startups, like a carpool.

On June 30, around 3:31 pm EST, Falcon 9 took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The first stage booster, which was reused for the eighth time since it entered service last year, was separated at 3:34 pm EST and landed back to Cape at 3:39 pm EST.

This marks SpaceX’s 20th launch this year but importantly the first one when the first stage booster landed onshore at Landing Zone-1, the company’s designated landing pad. All previous missions this year landed in the sea over the drone ships.

The launch also raises the tally to 127 missions for SpaceX. With months left in the calendar year, it can be predicted that the company is going to break its own record of 26 launches that took place last year.

SpaceX successfully launched 88 satellites into polar orbit under the Transporter-2 mission. This is SpaceX’s second dedicated mission under the SmallSat Rideshare program, which intends to launch satellites from different companies and startups, like a carpool.

On June 30, around 3:31 pm EST, Falcon 9 took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The first stage booster, which was reused for the eighth time since it entered service last year, was separated at 3:34 pm EST and landed back to Cape at 3:39 pm EST.

This marks SpaceX’s 20th launch this year but importantly the first one when the first stage booster landed onshore at Landing Zone-1, the company’s designated landing pad. All previous missions this year landed in the sea over the drone ships.

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1410392725996904448

The launch also raises the tally to 127 missions for SpaceX. With months left in the calendar year, it can be predicted that the company is going to break its own record of 26 launches that took place last year.

Transporter-2 mission launch. Image: SpaceX

Although the launch was originally scheduled on Tuesday, it was stopped T-11 seconds before liftoff due to the entry of a helicopter in the “keep out zone”.

Elon Musk was quite disappointed about Tuesday’s dangerous situation due to range violation. He tweeted and pointed out how the existing regulatory system is faulty and spacefaring civilization requires major regulatory reforms.

#Transporter-2 Mission

The transporter-2 mission consisted of 88 satellites, among which 85 were launched for external government and commercial customers. The other 3 were the company’s own Starlink internet satellites. All of them flew as part of this one mission which is the company’s second most dedicated ride-sharing mission to help other startups and companies to share satellites.

Satellites include the first launch for Umbra — a space intelligence startup that raised $32 million in January, and YAM-2 and YAM-3 which are Loft Orbital’s satellites. Five independent sensors are present in both YAM-2 and YAM-3 for five individually separate customers. The Pentagon’s Space Development Agency (SDA) had four satellites on Transporter-2 for $21 million.

Transporter-2 is the successor to Transporter-1, which was the first ridesharing mission for SpaceX. Transporter-1 carried 143 satellites in January but less orbital mass than Transporter-2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSiuW1HcGjA