For this mission to low orbit called Transporter-1, SpaceX had
transformed its Falcon 9 rocket into a Spanish hostel for satellites of
different formats. The exact number of deployments is debated, but this
record flight is a reminder that large operators are still interested in
small satellites.
And still, there was room ...
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A rocket, or a moving truck ...
No rest for SpaceX teams. For
what was already the third take-off of the Falcon 9 rocket this year,
the company based in Hawthorne had set itself a challenge: to succeed in
boarding as many satellites as possible for a 'rideshare', a shared
flight with a central device on which all vehicles are attached for
take-off and then ejected once in orbit.
And the company has not
gone all the way, not hesitating to cut prices to attract customers:
about $ 1 million to send anything weighing less than 200 kg, with
guaranteed take-off every day. about four months and a partial or even
total refund if they do not keep the date.
For this take-off, 143
satellites therefore shared the space on the large central device
(including 10 Starlink units, since there was still a little space).
Take-off took place from January 24 at 4 p.m. (Paris).
Terminus, everyone gets off!
The mission itself lasted 1 hour 30
minutes. It started with the traditional spectacle of the reused first
stage of Falcon 9 which, after successfully completing its mission,
landed (for the 5th time) on a company barge located offshore, far south
of Florida for this flight which took a polar path.
After the
fairing was ejected, the upper stage was lit twice to achieve an orbit
of approximately 500 x 520 km altitude. The satellites were then
deployed in groups in a neatly choreographed sequence lasting 18
minutes. It was indeed a record flight, with 143 satellites under the
fairing ... But the ejection itself remains a source of debate, because
on SpaceX's side, it is actually 110 payloads that were dropped (which
still remains a record).
In fact, the flight was carrying two
“transport” satellites, Sherpa-FX from SpaceFlight Inc., which carries
13 satellites, and Ion-SVC from D-Orbit, which contains 20 others. These
units will be ejected later, at the request of customers. So, 110 or
143? There is no definitive answer, but the other operators do not
'count' the satellites that they do not eject themselves in their
statistics.
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Still no real sky police
For the operators of constellations in
place, this kind of joint flight is a blessing which saves them from
having to buy seats on smaller launchers, which sometimes offer them
more interesting orbits but at a higher cost. We therefore found under
the cap a few well-known names: Planet Labs (48 SuperDoves satellites),
Iceye (3 radar satellites), Spire (8 Lemur satellites), Swarm (23
SpaceBEE satellites) ...
However, despite very quickly updated
tracking data, this kind of flight is a headache for organizations that
identify and catalog objects in orbit. A CubeSat is very difficult to
identify compared to another when they are only a few meters apart.
There
is also the delicate question of 'orbital pollution', given that a
significant proportion of these satellites have no propulsion: how long
will they stay in orbit after their lifespan?
Planet Labs is
particularly sensitive to the subject and ensures that all its units
return to be consumed in the atmosphere in less than 20 to 25 years, but
this is not the case for all operators. Swarm's SpaceBEE satellites,
for example, which measure only 10 x 10 x 5 cm, will logically spend
between 30 and 50 years in orbit. We must not lose sight of them ...
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