Spaceflight CEO Jason Andrews gave at talk this week at the Small Satellite Conference in Utah. Below is a summary of his address derived from Tweets by Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust) and David Hurst (@OrbitalDave).
Spaceflight
Jason Andrews, CEO
- Spaceflight scheduled to launch its SHERPA spacecraft carrier aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in late October
- SHERPA is secondary payload to Formosat-5 spacecraft
- SHERPA will deploy 89 satellites ranging from 2U CubeSats to 150-kg spacecraft
- Launch will set a new world record for the number of spacecraft on a single launch vehicle
- At Spaceflights’s request, Falcon 9 will drop perigee before deploying SHERPA to ensure spacecraft will de-orbit within 25 years
- Spacecraft will be placed in sun-synchronous orbit
- There’s a lot of demand for SSO launches
- Lately there has been increasing demand for launching spacecraft to mid-inclination orbits
- Spaceflight has flown 93 satellites on various launch vehicles to date
- Company has 150 satellite launches on order that will fly on five launch vehicles
- Spaceflight wants to make buying a space launch as easy as purchasing an airline ticket