Falcon 9 B5 • Transporter-15

Falcon 9 B5 • Transporter-15

A SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket will launch several smallsats on the Transporter-15 rideshare mission to Sun-synchronous orbit. Onboard is LEO Express 3, which is a Mira OTV (Orbital Tug Vehicle) by Impulse Space. Part of the payloads is also ESA's second Earth observation Scout mission, HydroGNSS, which will provide measurements of key hydrological climate variables, including soil moisture, freeze–thaw state over permafrost, inundation and wetlands, and above-ground biomass, using a technique called Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) reflectometry. The satellite measures the signal reflected off the land, ice and ocean from existing GNSS missions such as Galileo and GPS. Although these signals are faint, they can be collected by a low power receiver that can be accommodated on a small satellite in low Earth orbit making it compatible with a Scout mission. The mission will complement missions such as ESA's SMOS and Biomass, Copernicus Sentinel 1 and NASA's SMAP. The ION-SCV Stellar Stephanus and Galactic Giorgius CubeSat Carriers, the Mauve space telescope and 8 IRIDE satellites for Italy's ASI (IRIDE-MS1-EAGLET2 1–8) will also be on this flight. Onboard is also Winnebago 5, which is an orbital factory with reentry capsule for Varda Space. Further payloads are YAM 9, FORMOSAT 8A, Pelican 5–6, Umbra 11, NewSat 47 & NewSat 51–52, Accenture 1, AC1 001–003, AE5Ra/b/c, ANISCSAT, HUNITY, SARI 1–2, Black Kite 1, BRO 17, BRO 20, CTC 1A/B/C, FGN-TUG-S01, GENA-OT 1, GYEONGGISat 1, HCT-Sat 2, IHI-Sat 2, Lilium 2–3, LUNA 1, Mercury One (Mercury 1), MICE 1, Nahla, OTTER, PHASMA-LAMARR, PHASMA-DIRAC, PHI 1, PIAST-M, PIAST-S1, PIAST-S2, PW6U, Rapid, Reduced-cost high-Risk Research (R5), SpeQtre, SPiN 2, T.MicroSat 1, TORO 2, TRYAD 1–2, Veery-0G (Veery v0.5), Winnebago 5 (W-Series 5), WISDOM A-B, 3UCubed-A, 6GStarLab, 5 ICEYE X satellites, 36 Flock 4H SuperDove CubeSats for Planet and four Lemur 2 CubeSats for Spire. The booster is designated B10XX.X for this mission and will perform a RTLS (return to launch site) at LZ-4. - YAM (Yet Another Mission) is a series of micro satellites owned by Loft Orbital, which host various payloads for different customers. YAM 10 will use Loft Orbital's Longbow satellite, which is based on the Arrow bus from Airbus, and has a launch mass of 300–500kg. It will carry a high-precision Earth imaging payload for EarthDaily Analytics, who plans a 10 satellite constellation. - FORMOSAT 8A is the first satellite of the FORMOSAT 8 Earth observation satellite constellation consisting of six high-resolution optical remote sensing satellites for Taiwan's NSPO. The 380kg satellites feature a Hydrogen peroxide propulsion system. The imaging payload features one panchromatic band and at least four multi-spectral bands with a ground sampling distance (GSD) in panchromatic band of 1m and in multi-spectral bands of 2m. The swath width is 10km. The FORMOSAT 8 satellites are deployed in the sun-synchronous orbit for multiple daily revisit capabilities and global coverage of satellite images. Some of the satellites will carry a secondary payload. FORMOSAT 8B will carry a Gamma-ray Transients Monitor (GTM). - W-Series (Winnebago) are a series of ~300kg spacecraft designed by Varda Space Industries, which will spend up to three months in orbit to test space manufacturing technologies. At the end of that mission, a reentry capsule will return to Earth the material produced in orbit. - Pelican satellites are part of the Pelican commercial Earth observation constellation by Planet Labs to succeed the SkySat constellation. Pelicans have a launch mass of 160kg and is designed to operate in 500km SSO. Up to 30 satellites are planned for the Pelican constellation. - ION-SVC (InOrbit NOW) CubeSat Carriers, developed by Italian company D-Orbit, are 150kg free flying orbital tugs and technology demonstrators, which will host experiments and CubeSats to be deployed once in orbit. - Finnish firm ICEYE continues to expand its constellation with Generation 3 compact SAR microsatellites, each with a mass of around 90kg. They are Gen3 sats for a constellation of SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) equipped microsatellites. ICEYE provides near-real-time SAR imagery and the radar instrument can image through clouds, obscuring weather and darkness. - Umbra (Umbra-SAR) are a 65kg satellites and equipped with a X-band SAR (synthetic aperture radar) to capture snapshot imagery with a resolution of 25 centimeters over a 16 square km area. The mission is to test technologies and designs, validate performance, and progress into a fully operational architecture. To collect radar imagery Umbra has developed a proprietary antenna technology allowing for relatively low power operation to achieve high quality SAR images. - The Aleph 1 constellation consists of identical ÑuSat (NewSat) satellites weighing 50kg each. The satellites are equipped with an imaging system operating in visible light and infrared. The constellation will allow for commercially available real-time Earth imaging and video with a ground resolution of 1m. Future constellation concepts presented by Satellogic call for 90 satellites to achieve a 15-minute revisit time along with improvements in spectral, spatial and radiometric resolution and autonomous processing chains for even quicker turnaround. A 300 satellite constellation planned could accomplish a 5-minute revisit time. - IRIDE-MS1-EAGLET2 satellites are part of the IRIDE earth observation constellation built by the Italian Space Agency ASI with the support of ESA. It will be one of six constellations that make up IRIDE. The payload on the Eaglets is one of two types of Multispectral sensors, which capture images with multiple spectral channels on the electromagnetic spectrum, enabling the identification and measurement of different materials, land cover studies, vegetation health and crop types. IRIDE will be unique in its incorporation of a wide range of sensing techniques and technologies, including microwave imaging with Synthetic Aperture Radars (SAR), optical imaging at high and medium resolutions, and coverage across panchromatic, multispectral, hyperspectral, and infrared bands. Once operational, IRIDE will be used to track the impacts of climate change and provide data to support startups and SMEs in creating commercial applications. - Delayed from October and Nov. 10. Webcast: https://www.spacex.com/launches https://spaceflightnow.com

📍 Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 4, Lompoc, Kalifornien 93436, USA

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