Transporter-7 | Falcon 9 Block 5

Smallsat Rideshare Program

Thus, in 2019, the firm announced the offering of rideshare flights aboard its Falcon 9 for such customers, addressing their needs. These would come in two different ways: sharing the room inside the fairing on Starlink missions, or through dedicated rideshare missions named Transporter. Both options are part of the Smallsat Rideshare Program.

Leveraging Falcon 9’s mass to orbit capabilities, a rocket supporting a Transporter mission would see its payload volume subdivided. Interested customers could buy a portion of it as needed, for a much more affordable price. Furthermore, these missions would be regularly scheduled, allowing better in-advance planning, regarding launch date and destination orbit. In spite of this, any payload missing launch day could re-book, paying a small additional fee. 

SpaceX offers Transporter launches to low-Earth orbit (LEO), polar LEO, and — its most popular ride — to SSO. In fact, mid-inclination launches have only taken place through Starlink flights, while all past Transporter missions have been to SSO. Revisiting the same spot on Earth’s surface always at the same time of the day — offered by this type of orbit — turns it into a preferred destination.

Transporter Logistics

From the need for a particular product or service to arriving at the desired orbit and operating the spacecraft, many are involved in one of these missions. To avoid getting lost in the logistics of one of these missions, it can be thought of in a simplified manner as follows:

• Customer and spacecraft manufacturers: those interested in having a payload in space and those who provide the platform, the instruments on board, or both (the payload itself).
• Launch/integration service providers: those who broker rideshare flights, offer last-mile trips (via space tugs), care for meeting regulations, provide dispensers or separation systems, and so on.
• Launch provider: SpaceX, responsible for the launch itself and correctly reaching the intended deployment orbit.

This structure will be reflected in a subsequent section of this article when payloads are listed and discussed.

Mechanical Interfaces — Plates

Apart from the logistics aspect, the company also designed specific hardware to integrate payloads. These need an interface to the launch vehicle, provided through rideshare plates, conceptually similar to ESPA rings. Each of these plates can be arranged in these configurations: square — four plates — or hexagon — six of them. The former allows for more available volume than the latter.

In turn, the volume corresponding to each of those can be subdivided, using a quarter of the plate, half of it, or full use. These portions enable unique payload accommodations — e.g., a CubeSat dispenser — or standard ports in three different diameters, as follows.

Cake Topper

Yet another position to integrate payloads in a rideshare is available at the top of the plate stack. This upper mount enables spacecraft massing from 500 kg to 2,500 kg to be launched during a shared flight. If required, two of them can be placed side-by-side. In any case, because of the different disposition, a whole separate set of requirements need to be observed when flying as a cake topper.

Previous Missions

Momentus Inc.

Based in the USA, this company offers vehicles capable of transporting satellites between orbits, i.e., space tugs. So far, the company has projected three increasingly more capable vehicles: Vigoride, Ardoride, and Fervoride. To this date, only Vigoride flew on two demonstration missions: Vigoride-3 did so on Transporter-5, while Vigoride-5 on Transporter-6. This time is Vigoride-6’s (VR-6) turn.

Vigoride

This OTV offers a payload capacity of 750 kg, as well as 2 km/s of delta v. This change in velocity can be applied to increasing orbital altitude up to 2,000 km. Another possibility is to modify orbital inclination up to 7°. The satellites traveling on this space tug have access to electrical power, and communications. For its propulsion, Vigoride features a microwave electrothermal thruster, which uses water as propellant.

LLITED-A/B

Low-Latitude Ionosphere/Thermosphere Enhancements in Density (LLITED) is a mission part of NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative. Consisting of two 1.5U spacecraft, the agency assigned it the Educational Launch of Nanosatellite (ELaNa) number 40. Their development was a collaboration between The Aerospace Corporation (TAC), Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) in Florida, and the University of New Hampshire (UNH).

Each of these very small satellites have an outside size of 11x11x17 cm (~4.3×4.3×6.7 in) and a mass of 1.97 kg (~4.4 lb) each. The walls are made of aluminum, and they use both magnetic torque rods and tiny reaction wheels to achieve attitude control. Neither LLITED presents any thruster, while their electrical power is obtained through unfoldable solar arrays producing up to 15 W. Two Li-ion batteries per spacecraft store this power, allowing for a 1-year mission life.

The LLITED mission is to study Earth’s atmosphere, particularly the interaction between layers that are electrically charged, and others that are not — the lower thermosphere/ionosphere (100 km to 500 km in altitude). More precisely, the mission will provide a better understanding of the Equatorial Ionization Anomaly (EIA) and the Equatorial Temperature and Wind Anomaly (ETWA).

Consequently, the “A” and “B” sats will take measurements of the same point, from two different places, studying temperatures and winds. In order to do that, they contain a GPS radio occultation sensor (CTECS-A) by TAC, an ionization gauge (MIGSI) by NHU, and a planar ion probe (PIP) by ERAU. In addition, they will make these observations between a quarter to half an orbit away.

The knowledge gained from this mission will enable the creation of better models — mathematical descriptions — of our planet’s atmosphere.

Other Payloads On Vigoride-6

D-Orbit

This aerospace company has its headquarters in Italy, where it started to develop a vehicle capable of deorbiting deceased spacecraft. Later on, it moved to the business of satellite carriers, i.e., space tugs. To this day, the firm has launched their vehicles on all of the previous Transporter missions, as well as on Starlink Group 2-5.

ION

D-Orbit’s OTV can carry up to 160 kg of satellites, being capable of accommodating spacecraft of different shapes and sizes. This means microsats and CubeSat can be transported from the launcher’s drop-off point to other altitudes or inclinations. After this trip, proprietary (DPOD, DCUBE), or third party dispensers deploy the passengers. ION is also capable of supporting hosted payloads, run from the ground as a part of the carrier itself. In this mission, the ION serial number “SCV010” is going to space.

Payloads On ION SCV010

Exolaunch

The Germany-based company offers a series of services, from payload integration, to deployment, and mission management. In order to provide them, Exolaunch developed products such as separation hardware, CubeSat deployers, payload port adapters, deployment sequencers, and it is projecting an OTV named Reliant. Notably, the firm has all previous Transporter missions under its extensive flight heritage.

Deployment Systems

In order to better fit customers’ needs, Exolaunch may assign one or many of its deployment systems. These include:

• CarboNIX: this is a shock-free separator system capable of handling microsats massing in the range of 10 kg to 250 kg. To ensure this, different standard sizes are offered, as well as customization. Four of these rings will be used in this mission.
• EXOpod: flying since 2017, these deployers have evolved to host all sorts of cubesat sizes, from 0.25U all the way up to 16U, allowing, in addition, for some combination. In this mission, six EXOpod Novas are installed inside the fairings.
• EXOport: two of these multiport adapters will fly on Transporter-7, enabling the use of one port on a rideshare plate for a whole CubeSat cluster. A combination of the previous two systems can be used for satellite deployment.

Payloads Integrated By Exolaunch

Maverick Space Systems

Offering mission engineering and launch-related services, this US private company serves both commercial and government clients, who can be domestic or international. It was founded in 2019, and since then it took part in, at least, the first two Transporter missions. The firm developed a family of CubeSat dispensers named Mercury, as well as other payload aggregation hardware for rideshare missions.

CIRBE

Another mission is part of NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative: the Colorado Inner Radiation Belt Experiment (CIRBE). It consists of a 2U satellite, given the Educational Launch of Nanosatellite (ELaNa) number 47. The University of Colorado Boulder (UCB), particularly the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), was in charge of its development. It aims at measuring the ionization in the inner radiation belt around the Earth.

On the outside, its measurements are 10x10x30 cm (~3.9×3.9×11.8 in), which correspond to the XB1 bus, by Blue Canyon Technologies. It provides the spacecraft with more than 30.4 W of electrical power, thanks to a pair of deployable solar arrays. The platform stores 70 Wh in a Li-ion battery, while its nominal lifetime is five years or more. The XB3 presents capabilities for data storage, as well as for communications with ground stations — over UHF, and a much faster S-band, too. Further, a star tracker, and an inertial measurement unit (IMU) help in correctly pointing the satellite through active attitude control. CIRBE’s total mass is 5.5 kg (~12.2 lb)

Inside the CubeSat there is an instrument named REPTile-2 (Relativistic Electron Proton Telescope integrated little experiment – 2). Its design allows it to measure electrons with an energy of 3 to 3.5 MeV, and 6 to 35 MeV protons. These are present in this region of space, and represent a threat to orbiting satellites, and to astronauts. To carry out its observations, REPTile-2 will always remain perpendicular to the magnetic field it is crossing.

By doing so, it will be possible to further the understanding of the energetic particles in that region, and how the belt is formed. Gaining knowledge of its dynamics will improve useful forecasting for future missions orbiting through this zone.

Other Payloads Integrated by Maverick

Alba Orbital

Focused on PocketQube design, manufacturing, and deployment, the Scottish Alba Orbital is a thriving start-up. As a launch broker, the company has already flown on vehicles like the Atlas V, the Electron, and the Falcon 9. And because of these satellites being very small, they need to be arranged in clusters, so they travel to space in groups. Presently, Alba Cluster 7 is aboard this Transporter mission.

Albapods are the PocketQube dispensers designed by this firm, allowing them to deploy up to 96P of spacecraft. These can be composed of tiny satellites of 1P, 1.5P, 2P, or 3P, which means a full deployment could very well place into orbit a whole constellation at once.

Payloads Integrated By Alba Orbital

Other Payloads