SpaceX on Monday morning successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 64 small spacecraft for Spaceflight Industries, the largest rideshare mission from a U.S. launch vehicle.
The launch also featured the successful automated landing of the Falcon 9’s first stage, which was used for the third time, marking the first time the company has used the same booster three times.
The Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express mission launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., at 10:34 Pacific Standard Time and delivered the payloads in six separate deployments between 13 and 43 minutes after liftoff. At that point, Spaceflight took over the deployment sequences for the 64 small satellites for 34 customers. The deployments were expected to occur over a period of six hours.
Two of the payloads are cubesats under the Coast Guard’s Polar Scout project, which is part of the service’s effort to determine its long-term satellite technology needs, in particular the use of space-based sensors for Arctic search and rescue missions. The two demonstration cubesats, dubbed Yukon and Kodiak, were successfully deployed into their low earth polar orbits.
The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate oversaw the development and manufacture of the cubesats, which were prepared by Millennium Engineering and Integration, with help from Space Dynamics Laboratory, a non-profit unit of Utah State Univ., and Raytheon [RTN]. The satellites will be used to detect emergency distress beacons.
The Coast Guard’s Research and Development Center deployed two ground stations that will receive signals from the cubesats during the demonstration.
All told, the SSO-A mission includes 15 microsats and 49 cubesats for a wide range of U.S., international and government customers.