SpaceX Transporter-5 Rideshare mission with 59 CubeSats and MicroSats.
SpaceX Transporter-5 Rideshare mission with 59 CubeSats and MicroSats
On May 25th, 2022, SpaceX launched its fifth SmallSat RideShare Program mission, Transporter-5, orbiting 59 small spacecraft for various customers such as LEO satellite operators FOSSA Systems, GHGSat, ICEYE and satellite manufacturer Tyvak. The RideShare program provides cost-effective launches by allowing customers to share a ride atop previously-flown rockets for a base price of 1.1 million USD per each payload that weighs 200kgs. The Transporter-5 mission launched a variety of payloads ranging from CubeSats to orbital transfer vehicles with small satellites. The mission carried a couple of interesting payloads, including an in-orbit metal cutting robot created by Nanorachs/Maxar Technologies and a Celestis satellite carrying the cremated remains of 47 people.
Transporter-5 is SpaceX’s 5th dedicated SmallSat Rideshare Mission. On this flight are 59 spacecraft, including CubeSats, microsats, non-deploying hosted payloads, and orbital transfer vehicles.
Falcon 9’s first stage booster previously launched Crew-1, Crew-2, SXM-8, CRS-23, IXPE, one Starlink mission, and Transporter-4. After stage separation, Falcon 9 will return to Earth and land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is a US based aerospace manufacturer and space transportation company headquartered in Hawthorne, California USA. SpaceX has developed several launch vehicles, the Starlink satellite constellation, the Dragon cargo spacecraft, and flown humans to the International Space Station on the Crew Dragon Demo-2.
Former PayPal entrepreneur and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk founded the company in 2002 with the goal of creating the technologies to reduce space transportation costs and enable the colonization of Mars.
SpaceX developed the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 launch vehicles, both of which were designed from conception to eventually become reusable, and the Dragon spacecraft, which is flown into orbit by the Falcon 9 launch vehicle to supply the International Space Station (ISS) with cargo.