The SpaceX Rideshare Team sent an email last Friday morning to an undisclosed list of rideshare customers and that email said:
“For awareness, we will no longer be flying or working with Spaceflight Industries after currently manifested missions. We look forward to reliably launching all customers currently on manifest and growing our relationships with new operators as well.”
In an effort to provide transparency to our customers and the industry, we wanted to share a few additional thoughts and comments.
Tim Berry, Head of Manufacturing (Credit: Launcher)
The former Manager of Additive Manufacturing at SpaceX will lead Launcher’s Additive and Machining capabilities and build world-class Production and Integration systems for Launcher’s products.
HAWTHORNE, Calif., February 15, 2022 (Launcher PR) – Launcher (launcherspace.com), an industry-leading developer of highly efficient rockets and transfer vehicles, has appointed Tim Berry as its Head of Manufacturing.
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Roscosmos PR) — At the Baikonur Cosmodrome on March 20, 2021, a meeting of the commission was held, during which the results of tests of the Soyuz-2.1a space rocket were considered after a technical malfunction revealed this morning. After hearing the reports of the work supervisors, the members of the commission decided to launch the launch on the morning of Monday, March 22, 2021.
Dmitry Rogozin, General Director of the State Corporation Roscosmos : “At Baikonur, the State Commission decided to repeat on March 21 the checks of the Launch Readiness Control Set (LCC) mode of the Fregat upper stage. If the results of the KNSG regime are positive, the launch is scheduled for Monday, March 22.”
As part of the first commercial launch of the Glavkosmos Launch Services, the South Korean spacecraft for remote sensing of the Earth CAS500-1, the apparatus for removing space debris ELSA-d and satellites for remote sensing of the Earth GRUS from Japan, a small spacecraft of Saudi Arabia for Earth imaging and communications NAJM-1, communications satellites of the Technical University of Berlin.
In addition, the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle with the Fregat upper stage will launch the first satellite of the Higher School of Economics ERS, the CubeSat of the Sirius Educational Center and the Higher School of Economics, as well as the Orbikraft-Zorky satellite of the Russian company Sputniks and others. A total of 38 spacecraft from 18 countries will be launched into orbit.
Electron launches with 10 satellites on Oct. 29, 2020. (Credit: Rocket Lab webcast)
The mission will deploy 30 satellites to unique orbits using the Electron launch vehicle’s Kick Stage space tug
The satellites will enable internet from space, test new methods of deorbiting space debris, and enable research into predicting earthquakes
The launch will also feature a 3D printed mass simulator for Valve’s Gabe Newell to raise funds for Starship Children’s Hospital
LONG BEACH, Calif., November 2, 2020 (Rocket Lab PR) – Leading space systems company, Rocket Lab, has today announced its next Electron mission will feature a diverse range of payloads from the United States, France and New Zealand.
BOCA RATON, Fla., Aug. 24, 2020 (PredaSAR PR) — PredaSAR Corporation has successfully completed its Critical Design Review (CDR) to begin fabrication, testing and launch of its Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) spacecraft, in partnership with Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems Inc.
PredaSAR is building and will operate the world’s largest and most advanced constellation of SAR satellites. The successful CDR completion marks another major milestone in PredaSAR’s journey and follows its recent announcement of a rideshare partnership with SpaceX to launch its first satellite aboard the Falcon 9 launch vehicle.
Shown during the SSMS payload integration process for Arianespace’s Flight VV16 is the ION CubeSat carrier – a platform that will deploy 12 CubeSats after being placed in orbit by the Vega launcher. (Credit: Arianespace)
KOUROU, French Guiana (ESA PR) — Subject to favourable weather conditions, the soonest possible launch date for the Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS) proof-of-concept flight is Sunday 21 June from 02:36 BST/03:36 CEST (20 June at 22:51 local time in Kourou).
Editor’s Note: The launch is scheduled for June 19 at 0151 GMT (June 18 at 9:51 p.m. EDT).
KOUROU, French Guiana (ESA PR) — Multiple small satellites will be launched at once on the Vega VV16 mission from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. This flight will demonstrate the modular SSMS dispenser resting on its upper stage intended to bring routine affordable launch opportunities for light satellites from 0.2 kg CubeSats up to 400 kg minisatellites.
Electron rocket lifts off on Jan. 31, 2020. (Credit: Rocket Lab)
The week ahead features launches by Rocket Lab and SpaceX, Vega’s first rideshare mission, two Chinese launches, and a Japanese sounding rocket flight.
Arianespace personnel are utilizing smart glasses during certain payload checkout activities for Flight VV16 at the Spaceport in French Guiana, enabling customers to remotely monitor operations performed on satellites that will be orbited this month by the Vega light-lift launcher. (Credit: Arianespace)
KOUROU, French Guiana (Arianespace PR) — The launch campaign has resumed for Arianespace’s next mission, which will be the proof-of-concept flight with the Vega launcher’s “ride-share” configuration – known as the Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS).
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (Momentus Space PR) — As we have written in the past, SpaceX has proven a new paradigm for the satellite launch industry. From record-breaking launches for payloads (number of satellites on one rocket) to one of the most innovative and flexible ridesharing programs, the team there has proven that the world’s first orbital-class reusable rocket can bring down costs for smallsat operators through regularly scheduled, dedicated Falcon 9 rideshare missions.
Still, many CubeSat and smallsat operators would prefer to be in custom orbits at different inclinations, in different orbit planes, or at different altitudes.
NASA to fulfill Boston University study of the earth’s magnetic field, as TriSept leads integration of 6U CubeSat payload in dispenser bound for launch on a Rocket Lab Electron.
CHANTILLY, Virginia, March 9, 2020 (TriSept PR) – TriSept Corporation, a leading provider of launch integration, management and brokerage services for commercial and government missions, today announced it has completed the integration activity for NASA’s ELaNa 32 ANDESITE mission, a rideshare set to launch Boston University’s groundbreaking scientific study of the earth’s magnetic field on a Rocket Lab Electron from New Zealand later this month.
Vega begins its ascent from the Spaceport in French Guiana, carrying Italy’s PRISMA Earth observation satellite on the third Arianespace mission of 2019. (Credit: Arianespace)
First dedicated rideshare mission on Vega to launch spacecraft for Spaceflight customers, including Satellogic, Planet, and Swarm Technologies.
SEATTLE, March 9, 2020 (Spaceflight PR) –– Spaceflight today announced it is providing mission management and rideshare integration services for four organizations on Arianespace’s first dedicated rideshare mission on its Vega launch vehicle. The proof of concept rideshare mission, VV16, will launch 53 microsatellites, nanosatellites and cubesats, including 28 payloads from Spaceflight customers Satellogic, Planet, Swarm Technologies, and an undisclosed organization.
CHANTILLY, Virginia and FORRES, Scotland, January 14, 2020 (TriSept/Orbex PR) – TriSept Corporation, a leading provider of launch integration, management and brokerage services for commercial and government missions, today announced it has procured a full mission aboard an Orbex Prime launch vehicle set to lift off in the fall of 2022 from the UK’s first spaceport in Sutherland, Scotland.
With
its expansion into the UK space market already underway, TriSept is
building a multiple spacecraft manifest for a dedicated rideshare
mission aboard the reusable Orbex Prime small satellite launcher.
TriSept is a long-time go-to launch integration provider in the US
space market, enabling the launch of more than 200 satellites on 70
different missions aboard 20 different launch vehicles from 13 launch
sites across the globe. TriSept announced last month it will have a
full-time presence at the Harwell Space Campus in Oxford, England
beginning this year.
SEATTLE, December 11, 2019 (Spaceflight PR) - - Spaceflight, the leading provider of mission management and rideshare integration services, today announced it successfully executed nine missions in 2019, the most rideshare launches the company has performed in one year, representing a 300 percent growth from the previous year.
The company ended last year with its historic dedicated rideshare mission, SSO-A, and continued to execute many more firsts in 2019. This includes the most recent accomplishment of manifesting and managing three rideshare launches in one week on three continents. The final missions of 2019 were SEOPS-2 (ISS SpX-19/NG-12) launched in the U.S., RL-2 (Rocket Lab’s “Running Out of Fingers”) launched in New Zealand, and PSLV-C48 launched in India.
WASHINGTON, November 18, 2019 (Nanoracks PR) – Nanoracks, the world’s leading commercial space station company, has booked a launch mission like no other, leveraging the recently announced SpaceX rideshare program. Onboard a Falcon 9, targeting launch in late 2020, Nanoracks has booked deployment of eight small satellites as well as the Company’s first in-space Outpost-demonstration mission.
Recently, Nanoracks announced the Company’s first in-space Outpost demonstration mission in a letter from CEO Jeffrey Manber. Nanoracks, in collaboration with Maxar, will be building and operating a self-contained hosted payload platform that will demonstrate the robotic cutting of second stage representative tank material on-orbit. This test will be the first of its kind to demonstrate the future ability to convert spent upper stages in orbit into commercial habitats – a long-term goal of Nanoracks.
