SpaceX to launch Transporter-11 rideshare with 116 payloads

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On Friday, Aug. 15, 2024, SpaceX will launch the Transporter-11 rideshare mission from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB). Liftoff is scheduled to occur at 11:20 AM PT (18:20 UTC), at the beginning of a 53-minute launch window. If needed, there is another launch opportunity the following day at the same time.

Payloads will be deployed from the second stage to two Sun-synchronous orbits (SSO) at altitudes of approximately 510-520 km and 590-600 km, beginning almost an hour after launch and lasting until two hours and 36 minutes after launch. There will be a total of 99 deployment events, releasing 108 spacecraft, one of which is an orbital transfer vehicle (OTV) carrying hosted payloads and five other satellites for later deployment. SpaceX shows 116 payloads on the flight.

The Falcon 9 booster being used for this flight is B1075-12, which previously flew SDA-0A, SARah-2, and nine Starlink missions, all from VSFB. After stage separation, the booster will return to land on Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4), which sits adjacent to SLC-4E. Support ship GO Beyond will recover the payload fairing halves downrange in the Pacific Ocean.

The Transporter-11 payload stack. (Credit: SpaceX)

Following first stage separation, the second stage will conduct its first burn, which will last less than six minutes, to reach an elliptical parking orbit. Then, 50 minutes after launch, it will perform a short three-second circularization burn to reach the first SSO deployment orbit at an altitude of approximately 510 by 520 km and an inclination of 97.45 degrees. Four minutes later, deployments will begin, with there being 69 deployments that will release 70 payloads.

An hour and 45 minutes after launch, the second stage will begin another sequence of two one-second burns to reach the second payload deployment orbit at an altitude of approximately 590 by 600 km and an inclination of 97.75 degrees. The remaining 30 deployments, releasing 38 payloads, begin about two and a half hours after launch and last for about six minutes. After releasing all of the satellites, the second stage will conduct a final burn to deorbit and reenter Earth’s atmosphere.

This will be the 81st Falcon mission of the year for SpaceX. Transporter-11 will be the 11th flight since SpaceX had to briefly ground all Falcon flights following the failure of the Starlink Group 9-3 on July 11. The next SpaceX flight, a Starlink mission, is expected from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) in Florida on Aug. 20. The next SpaceX rideshare flights are expected in November, with Transporter-12 flying to SSO from VSFB and Bandwagon 2 launching to mid-inclination orbit from CCSFS.

Mission overview

This will be the 11th dedicated rideshare mission to SSO organized by SpaceX, with payloads ranging in size from picosatellites of less than a kilogram that are only a few centimeters in length to satellites massing several hundred kilograms. While most of the payloads are released directly from the launch vehicle, D-Orbit’s ION vehicle will deploy five more satellites at a later time. Rideshare integrators handling payloads on this flight include Exolaunch, ISISpace, SEOPS, and Maverick.

SEOPS is supporting the launch of five cubesats on this mission and is introducing its new Ghost Trap deployer. Based on the low-profile Slingshot deployer that was used to mount cubesats on the outside of the Cygnus cargo vehicle, Ghost Trap holds the satellite with its longest dimension against the payload stack, resulting in reduced vibration during launch.

Exolaunch is supporting 42 satellites with its separation systems and cubesat deployers. ISISpace is supporting 49 satellites with its deployers. Maverick is deploying three cubesats.

Italy’s D-Orbit has its ION SCV-012 OTV, nicknamed “Magnificent Monica.” This spacecraft will host several payloads as well as carry five passenger satellites for later deployment. One of the hosted payloads is expected to be a FireStar water-fueled plasma thruster from RocketStar.

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Arctic Weather Satellite is a prototype for a potential constellation. The 120 kg spacecraft, developed with OHB Sweden, uses a cross-track scanning microwave radiometer to provide atmospheric humidity and temperature soundings.

PlanetiQ has the 41 kg spacecraft GNOMES-5, which has a radio occultation payload to collect data for weather forecasting. Tomorrow.io-1 and 2 are a pair of 6U CubeSats with microwave sounder instruments for weather forecasting.

Tanager with its solar arrays deployed. Credit: Planet

Planet will replenish its constellation of 3U SuperDove satellites with 36 more of the spacecraft, which have 3-5 m resolution multi-spectral imaging payloads. Planet also has its first Tanager satellite on the flight, with a mass of 194 kg. Tanager is built on the same satellite bus as Planet’s high-resolution Pelican satellites, with the addition of a hyperspectral imager in the visible and shortwave infrared wavelengths. Tanager-1 will provide data on greenhouse gas emissions for the nonprofit Carbon Mapper Coalition.

Norway’s NTNU has HYPSO-2, a 6U CubeSat built by Nanoavionics with a hyperspectral imager to monitor ocean health. Lemu Earth has Nge, a 6U CubeSat built by Nanoavionics with a hyperspectral camera from Simera Sense. Finland’s Kuva Space has Hyperfield-1, a 6U CubeSat, with a hyperspectral imager.

Kanyini with its ISISpace deployer. Credit: ISISpace

Kanyini is a 6U CubeSat from Australia built with a bus from Inovor Technologies, carrying an Internet of Things (IoT) payload from Myriota and a hyperspectral imager. Added Value Solutions (AVS) has Lur-1, billed as the first 100% Basque satellite. This demonstration spacecraft has payloads for quantum communications and multispectral imaging with a 1.5 m resolution.

WREN-1 from Hungary’s C3S is a 6U CubeSat with an imaging payload that will support the monitoring of water resources. PhiSat-2, from ESA and Open Cosmos, is a 6U CubeSat with a multispectral imager that will demonstrate using AI applications to process images on orbit.

Packing Tyche for shipment. (Credit: Surrey Satellite Technology)

Fraunhofer EMI has ERNST, a 12U CubeSat that will demonstrate a cryocooled infrared imaging payload for the German military, as well as visible light imaging and radiation detector payloads. Tyche is a 150 kg electro-optical imaging satellite built by Surrey Satellite Technology for the UK Space Command.

Loft Orbital’s YAM-7, massing 90 kg, is carrying the VanZyl-1 thermal infrared imaging payload for Hydrosat. Satellogic has three more high-resolution optical Earth observation satellites massing about 40 kg each, named NuSat-48/49/50.

Creotech Instruments SA has EagleEye, Poland’s largest satellite with a mass of 60 kg. EagleEye is an optical observation satellite in the visible and NIR bands with a resolution approaching one meter at its lowest operational orbit of 350 km. Indonesia’s Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries will have CAKRA-1, an 8U CubeSat built by GomSpace with an imaging payload, atop Falcon 9.

iQPS team members with QPS-SAR-8. (Credit: iQPS)

Several companies have Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging satellites onboard. Capella Space has Capella-15/Acadia-5, a 160 kg satellite. Umbra Space will fly a tandem pair of satellites, Umbra 9 and 10, which weigh 83 kg each. ICEYE has four of its 90 kg satellites, X33/39/40/43. Japan’s iQPS has QPS-SAR-8 “AMATERU-IV,” which masses around 100 kg.

Hawkeye 360 has another trio of formation-flying RF sensing satellites, Hawk-10A/B/C, each massing around 30 kg. Unseen Labs adds two more satellites, BRO-14 and BRO-15, to their RF sensing constellation used for maritime monitoring. Recent BRO satellites have been 8U CubeSats.

Türkiye’s Plan-S is launching four 6U spacecraft to initiate global service for its Connecta IoT Network. Spanish firm Sateliot has four 6U CubeSats for IoT connectivity, its first satellites produced for commercial service after launching earlier prototypes. Italian firm Apogeo Space has nine 1/3U satellites for IoT service that can launch together from a single slot in the CubeSat deployer. Spire has three LEMUR-2 satellites onboard, one of which is expected to be a 16U spacecraft for Hubble Network.

LISA-T deployment test on parabolic flight. (Credit: NeXolve Holding, LLC)

NASA Ames has a pair of 6U CubeSats onboard. PTD-4 will demonstrate the Lightweight Integrated Solar Array and AnTenna (LISA-T) developed by Marshall Space Flight Center. PTD-R will carry Deep Purple from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, an imaging payload using side-by-side telescopes to capture ultraviolet and short-wave infrared light simultaneously.

Nightjar, from the Taiwan Space Agency, is a 3U CubeSat built using a Nanoavionics bus and an IoT communications payload from Rapidtek Technology. TORO, from the Taiwan Space Agency, is a 3U CubeSat built using a Nanoavionics bus with a visible light/near-infrared imaging payload from Pyras Technology.

CUAVA-2 (6U) and Waratah Seed-1 (6U) from the University of Sydney each carry multiple technology demonstration payloads, including a GPS reflectometry payload on CUAVA-2. Germany’s Zentrum für Telematik has QUBE, a 3U CubeSat that includes a laser communications payload for quantum key distribution.

Senegal’s first satellite, the 1U spacecraft GaindéSat-1A, was developed with assistance from the Space Center of the University of Montpellier (CSUM) and contains an IoT and low-resolution imaging payload. ROCK and LOPEN are a pair of 1U CubeSats from Array Labs, one of which will test a special coating that is expected to affect the spacecraft’s drag.

NearSpace Launch has TROOP-F2, a 6U CubeSat carrying hosted payloads for several customers, including the Harmony space memorial flight for Celestis. Aethero Space has Deimos, a 1.5U CubeSat with imaging and edge computing payloads that will demonstrate AI/ML applications. Oresat0.5 is a 2U CubeSat from Portland State University that will test an attitude control system and a short-wave infrared sensor.

GNA-3 has an ITU filing through Sweden, with Swedish Space Corporation mentioned in the filing documents. SATORO-T2 may be a new spacecraft from Taiwan’s SATORO Space. UM5-EOSAT and UM5SAT-RIBAT appear to be associated with Morocco’s Mohammed V University in Rabat (UM5R). Fossa Systems was expected to have spacecraft on this flight, possibly aboard D-Orbit’s ION.

Notes on previous Transporter missions

51 objects are being tracked from the Transporter-10 mission, with 15 of those still unidentified. Some of the unidentified payloads have been declared lost by their owners, including the two Jackal satellites and the Optimus OTV. Others still to be identified include CBAS-LACE 2 (the other satellite in this pair has been identified), IRIS-F1, M3, ONDOSAT-OWL-1 and -2, OrbAstro-TR2, PYXIS, the four PY4 spacecraft, and Veery-0E.

(Lead image: A Falcon 9 stands at SLC-4E at the Vandenberg Space Force Base. Credit: Jack Beyer for NSF)

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