SpaceX successfully launched its 82nd Falcon mission this year on Saturday, November 11 to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. 

Deployment of payloads from the second stage to a Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) at an altitude of approximately 520 kilometres began almost an hour after launch and lasted for about 30 minutes. There were 89 deployment events from Falcon 9 releasing 90 spacecraft, some of which were orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs) carrying an additional 23 satellites for later deployment. SpaceX was able to confirm successful deployment for 85 of those 89 immediately. The owners of two of those four unconfirmed deployments have announced on social media that they received signals from the satellites. This was the ninth dedicated rideshare mission organised by SpaceX. The Transporter flights provide a consistent cadence of rideshare opportunities to the popular SSO destination, with several annual flights. 

This Transporter-9 mission includes some of the Seraphim portfolio and Accelerator alumni.

SSIT Portfolio Companies on board:

  • ICEYE - confirmed the successful deployment of and communication established with all 4 ICEYE SAR satellites, supported by Exolaunch. ICEYE has now launched 31 SAR satellites since 2018.
  • D-Orbit - successfully launched Cosmic Wander, its 12th Commercial mission. Cosmic Wander leverages the ION Satellite Carrier, the ION SCV013 “Ultimate Hugo” OTV. The ION Satellite Carrier was deployed into a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 525 kilometres. D-Orbit is a global market leader in the space logistics and transportation service industries.
  • Ubotica Technologies - the PLATERO mission, by Open Cosmos, is powered with AI from Ubotica to intelligently track biodiversity, desertification, emergencies (wildfires, floods), and farming impacts, aiding sustainable policy development. Equipped with a high-performance multispectral camera and IoT capabilities, PLATERO enables real-time, ground-based sensor communication, streamlining decision-making.
  • Spire Global - shared that all eleven satellites were deployed successfully, making it the most satellites launched for Spire Space Services on a single launch. The satellites will serve missions focused on Earth observation, connectivity, radio frequency intelligence and more. 

Accelerator Alum:

  • Wyvern - is a Canadian Earth Observation company, on the Transporter-9 mission, Wyvern launched the EPICHyper-3 satellite, a 3U hyperspectral Earth observation CubeSat. 

Find out more about the mission here.