Screenshot from SpaceX Webcast of the Transporter-7 launch. Seeing is believing - Saw nothing
Mission Rundown: SpaceX Falcon 9 - Transporter-7
Written: April 17, 2023
All aboard the southern express
SpaceX conducted its 24th launch of 2023 with the Transporter-7 rideshare mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Station.
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at 23:47 PDT on Friday, (06:47:49 UTC on Saturday) January 14, 2023. Falcon 9’s first stage returned to land at Landing Zone-4 approximately seven and a half minutes after launch.
This was the seventh dedicated rideshare mission organized by SpaceX and carried 51 payloads into a sun-synchronous orbit — some of which will be deployed later from two independent space tugs that are on the mission.
The payloads range in size from picosatellites of less than a kilogram — measuring only a few centimeters on each side — to a Turkish radar satellite massing around 800 kg.
The Transporter missions are intended to provide a consistent cadence of rideshare opportunities to popular orbits such as Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO). As with many other satellite missions in 2023, the Transporter-7 launch date slipped from its original April 9, 2023 target, ending up at April 14/15, 2023.
There are more Transporter missions scheduled for 2023, launching in the second, third and fourth quarters of the year.
Falcon 9 booster B1063-10 is the eighth booster to reach double digits. It previously lofted Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, DART, and seven Starlink missions.
B1063-10 will have made its tenth flight after launching the following mission:
The second stage of the vehicle featured a new shorter variant of the nozzle extension on the MVac engine. This new nozzle extension is optimized for cost and manufacturability at the expense of specific impulse efficiency and will be used on missions where Falcon 9’s full performance is not needed.
The second stage performed five burns throughout this mission. The first two brought the vehicle to a nearly circular orbit around 500 km in altitude and a 97.6-degree inclination to deploy most of the payloads starting about an hour after launch.
Two more burns raised the orbit to around 680 km circular for the deployment of IMECE, two and a half hours after liftoff. The fifth burn deorbited the second stage.
2nd stage flight path
Following stage separation, the second stage’s Merlin Vacuum engine ignited, beginning the six minute long burn toward an initial parking orbit.
While the payload mass or destination orbit usually don’t prevents the first stage from preserving the energy needed for a boostback burn, Transporter missions are relatively light and target a single orbit, abling a “Return to Launch Site” (RTLS) flight profile and cancel the need for downrange drone ship recovery.
Notam: Transporter 7’s flightpath with the expected fairing splashdown area 500 km downrange
Three Merlin engines lit for 29 seconds to perform the ‘entry burn’, protecting the booster from the aerodynamic stresses and chock bow plasma burns caused by the atmospheric reentry. This time a short triple engine burn was used to land B1063-10 on LZ-4. It was the 184th successful landing overall of a Falcon rocket.
Second stage burned for 9 minutes 59 seconds to insert itself into its transfer orbit. This orbit measured 207 km x 537 km.
After that the second stage coasted for 55 minutes before Second Engine Start (SES-2) for 3-4 seconds, entering its orbit of 490 x 510 km at an inclination of 97.4 degrees. Starting at T+00:59:00 minutes, the rest of the payloads began deploying. The deployment sequence then lasted for 16 minutes 22 seconds.
B1063-10 didn’t perform a static fire test after refurbishment while waiting for a west coast launch out of Vandenberg. SpaceX has omitted this safety precaution several times so far. It is not required to perform a static fire test inhouse missions like Starlink, that will save money and time before the launch.
SpaceX is the first entity ever that recovers and reflies its fairings. After being jettisoned, the two fairing halves will use cold gas thrusters to orientate themselves as they descend through the atmosphere. Once at a lower altitude, they will deploy drogue chutes and parafoils to help them glide down to a soft landing for recovery.
Falcon fairings halfs have been recovered and reused since 2019. Improved design changes and overall refurbishment procedures have decreased the effects of water landings and led to an increased recovery rate of fairings.
The active fairing has four pushrods to separate itself from the passive fairing. They are also air conditioned with Nitrox - A gas mixture of Oxygen - Nitrogen gasses known by deep sea divers is pumped into the fairing to prevent humid air from entering, corroding and damaging the payload.
Fairings have evenly spaced venting ports that have been redesigned a number of times by having first ten, then eight and now having their venting ports built as close pairs along the fairing edge. This prevents saltwater from the ocean from flooding and sinking the fairing, and makes refurbishment toward the next flight easier.
The Transporter-7 Payload
SpaceX will launch 51 satellites into two Sun-Synchronous Orbits. These satellites are either directly attached to ports on the three ESPA rings A, B and C or indirectly to plates with dispensers attached to them. The 15 inch - 24 inch ports on ESPA ring A - C are secured to the Payload Adaptor Fitting on top of the 2nd stage.
ESPA ring A has four 24 inch ports A1 - A4
ESPA ring B has four 24 inch ports B1 - B4
ESPA ring C has six 15 inch ports C1 - C6
ESPA ring C is extended with a cone holding the Turkish Earth observation (EO) satellite IMECE, the highest resolution imaging satellite designed and built in Turkey with 0.99 m panchromatic and 5 m multispectral capabilities.
Based on this NSF payload photo it looks like that there are three ESPA rings A - C.
While some Transporter customers deal directly with SpaceX to get a ride for their spacecraft, most of the payloads are handled by launch integrators who buy ports on the payload stack and then assemble multiple customers into that space.
The payloads will then either deploy directly from the sub contractors satellite ring adapter or from a separable CubeSat deployer or in this case two ‘space tug’ that will release its payloads at a later time — possibly after shifting and adjusting to another orbit.
On this flight, the launch integrators with ports on the payload stack include Exolaunch, handling 16 CubeSats and five microsatellites on the current mission. Exolaunch is a German-based launch service and separation system provider for smallsat payloads.
Graphic from ExoLaunch Inc. shows their capability to mount and deploy many types of payloads
Mounted on the CarboNIX separation ring, a microsatellite will be released and deployed for their customer. The EXOpod CubeSat deployer will carry up to four CubeSats. Nine quad EXOpods mounted on a porthole extension plate can deploy 36 CubeSats.
The EXOport porthole - 24 inch to 15 inch - reducer plate, Exolaunch will deploy a number of ‘Toolbox’ sized 12U to 24U CubeSats even up to four minisatellites from 15 inch ports.
ISIL placed several of their customer CubeSats with both Exolaunch and Momentus. SEOPS is handling three microsatellites. Maverick Space Systems is handling two CubeSats and three microsatellites.
D-Orbit has the ION-SCV-010 tug carrying five CubeSats and two hosted payloads, including EPICHyper-1, VCUB1, and Kepler 20 & 21.
Momentus has the Vigoride-VR6 tug carrying several CubeSats: LLITED A/B, REVELA, DISCO-1, VIREO, and IRIS-C. Also aboard are a new CubeSat deployer for Italy’s ARCA and a demonstration of the new roll-out Tape Spring Solar Array (TASSA) from Momentus.
The largest payload on Transporter-7 is the Earth observation (EO) satellite IMECE, the highest resolution imaging satellite designed and built in Turkey with 0.99 m panchromatic and 5 m multispectral capabilities. Designed by TÜBİTAK Space Technologies Research Institute (TÜBİTAK UZAY), it is one of several Turkish satellites on board.
TÜBİTAK UZAY also has SSS-2B, a 3U CubeSat technology demonstrator. Another 3U CubeSat is KILICSAT from GUMUSH Aerospace and the University of Turkish Aeronautical Association, with an AIS receiver and amateur radio beacon.
Plan S has its Connecta T2.1, a 6U CubeSat that includes an Internet of Things (IoT) payload and a Caiman multispectral camera from Dragonfly Aerospace.
Orbital Sidekick has the first two spacecraft in its constellation of high-resolution hyperspectral imaging satellites, GHOSt 1 & 2, with 8 m resolution and 500 spectral bands. The imaging technology has been tested in orbit with earlier payloads on the International Space Station and the smaller Aurora satellite that was launched on Transporter-2.
The Astro Digital satellite bus and deployment with a Maverick dual satellite adapter were also demonstrated on Transporter-2 with SEAKR’s Mandrake 2 satellites.
The GHOSt microsatellites are approximately 90 kg each. Moving to a larger bus than the earlier Aurora satellite enabled using larger telescopes, as well as giving more power and higher throughput Ka-band radios. Onboard image processing using Nvidia hardware enables them to pick out data points of interest to reduce the data download.
Currently, Orbital Sidekick’s commercial business is largely in the energy industry, where the company supports seven of the top 10 pipeline operators in North America with services such as pipeline leak detection.
Orbital Sidekick has contracts with government customers such as NRO. Transporter-8 and Transporter-9 will each carry another pair of GHOSt satellites. This will fill Orbital Sidekick’s current authorization for six satellites, which will be expanded to 14.
Argentinian firm Satellogic will increase its constellation to 34 active satellites with four more on this flight. NewSat (or ÑuSat) 36-39 have 1 m resolution multispectral imaging and 25 m hyperspectral imaging.
AAC Clyde Space is launching EPICHyper-1 for customer Wyvern Space, a 6U spacecraft with a hyperspectral imager. FACSAT-2, a 6U satellite for the Colombian Air Force, has a 5 m imaging payload and a spectrometer for detecting greenhouse gasses.
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has the 6U CubeSat DEWASAT-2 with a 4.7 m multispectral imager. Kenya’s Taifa-1 is a 3U CubeSat satellite developed by SayariLabs in collaboration with Endurosat that has a hyperspectral payload.
Italy’s Arca Dynamics has the 3U Revela satellite with an EO payload to demonstrate image processing algorithms. VCUB1 from Brazil’s Visiona Tecnologia Espacial is a 6U CubeSat spacecraft with a 3.5 m multispectral camera.
There is only one synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite on this Transporter mission. Umbra is expanding its constellation with Umbra-6, massing approximately 70 kg. Umbra now has an open data program monitoring several locations around the world.
Two operators of radio frequency (RF) detection/geolocation services continue to expand their constellations. Hawkeye 360 has the HAWK-7A/B/C trio of 30 kg microsatellites. Unseen Labs has BRO-9, a 6U CubeSat.
CACI International also has a demonstration microsatellite that has an RF detection payload as well as a positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) payload.
GHGSat has three more of its 15 kg microsatellites with methane sensors for greenhouse gas emissions detection, GHGSat-C6/7/8.
Norway’s NORSAT-TD, a 35 kg microsatellite, has a variety of payloads including an Automatic Identification System (AIS) for monitoring marine traffic, a VHF Data Exchange System (VDES) for two-way messaging with marine vessels, a laser communications payload, and a laser reflector to allow tracking of the satellite.
Spire has three LEMURs on board. LEMUR 2 ONREFLECTION is a 6U spacecraft built for a customer. LEMUR 2 SPACEGUS is also known as Adler-2, a 6U spacecraft with several instruments for assessing the debris environment. LEMUR 2 ROMEO-N-LEO is a 3U satellite for Spire’s own constellation, which has GPS radio occultation (RO) functionality for gathering weather data, AIS for tracking maritime traffic, and Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) for tracking aircraft.
Kepler Communications is launching a pair of 6U satellites, Kepler 20 & 21, with Ku-band communications and data store-and-forward capabilities. These will expand Kepler’s current constellation and test payload technology for the next-generation satellites, which are planned to begin launching in the fall with two Pathfinder satellites.
Sateliot-0/Platform-3 is a 6U satellite built by Endurosat for Sateliot with a 5G IoT payload. Tomorrow.io has the 85 kg Tomorrow-R1 satellite with a weather radar payload.
Asteroid mining startup AstroForge has a 6U CubeSat, Brokkr-1, that will attempt to demonstrate vaporizing a sample of asteroid-like material and separating metals.
LLITED-A/B (Low-Latitude Ionosphere/Thermosphere Enhancements in Density), a pair of 1.5U CubeSats from NASA, will have their orbit lowered to 495 km by the Vigoride tug before beginning their mission.
LLITED-A/B will provide measurements of the ionosphere and thermosphere to study the Equatorial Ionization Anomaly (EIA) and Temperature and Wind Anomaly (ETWA).
CIRBE, a 3U CubeSat from the University of Colorado Boulder, will take measurements for the study of radiation belt dynamics.
Stanford Student Space Initiative (Sapling) and Cal Poly Pomona Bronco Space (Yearling) are back with new technology demonstrator CubeSats after having their previous spacecraft on the Transporter-6 flight get trapped in their deployers when the tug they were riding had a power failure.
INSPIRE-Sat 7 is a French university project from LATMOS that includes an amateur radio payload. There is a 1U student satellite from Denmark, DISCO-1.
RoseyCubesat-1 from Orbital Solutions Monaco is a 1U satellite assembled by high school students. International Computing High School of Bucharest in Romania has the 1P satellite ROM-2 with an amateur radio payload and a two-megapixel camera.
National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in Taiwan has the 3U IRIS-C to verify the performance of a star tracker.
MRC-100 from the Technical University of Budapest in Hungary, part of its “SMOG” series, is a 3P satellite for monitoring “electromagnetic pollution” generated by human activity.
Hungarian 3U satellite VIREO is a technology demonstrator from C3S and AImotive.
Celestis has its Excelsior memorial spaceflight mission as a hosted payload on board.
Deployment schedule of Transporter-7
After the 2nd stage engine first cut-off the deployment begins in this order. This list is written with following sources: Everyday Astronaut on launch order, NasaSpaceFlight on payloads, EOportal on some details and Günters Space Page with even finer details starting with the Umbra SAR satellite.
A little about CubeSats
CubeSats are built within standard measurements of 10x10x10 centimeters as a 1U unit with lots of solar cells on the outside and various instruments on the inside. Planet of San Francisco’s SuperDove is a 3U CubeSat, sized as a ‘Loaf of bread’. The next size is the ‘Shoebox’ 6U which is two 3U built side by side or a ‘French Flüte’ with 6U on a row. A 12U CubeSat is a ‘Toolbox’ measuring 20x20x30 centimeters and fills a quad pack dispenser.
A PocketQube is a type of miniaturized satellite for space research that usually has a size of 5cm cubed per unit or 'p' (one eighth the volume of a CubeSat). This technology paves the way to ‘democratizing access to space’ as the small form factor removes significant economic barriers to orbit for smaller organizations. It looks like a ‘Rubik's Cube’.
There is a smaller size, the 1/4U CubeSat, which is like a ‘Slice of bread’. SpaceBEE from Swarm Technologies, Inc. is an example of this size.
Some callouts are based on quad cubesat deployers located on a dispenser plate mounted on an ESPA ring port “A1-4, B1-4 and C1-6” plus at the top rim of ESPA ring C as port C7, where the heaviest Turkish satellite has been mounted.
From the 2nd stage top bulkhead there is attached a 12 foot fairing mounting ring onto which the Payload Adaptor Fitting is mounted; it tapers into where the ESPA rings are mounted. On the ESPA rings there are 4 to 6 portholes depending on their size, from where Microsats and plates can be attached, the plates are attachment points for smaller rings with CubeSat dispensers in all sizes from 1/8U to 36U.
Terran Orbital Corporation have here mounted 5 CubeSats dispensers mounted on a plate attached to one of four 24 inch portholes in the ESPA D ring. The CubeSats dispensers each will open a lid from which a 6U CubeSat will deploy, CPOD will deploy two 3U CubeSat and two Cicero-2 will each deploy a larger 6U XXL CubeSat. The power wires go to the locks on the lids on the CubeSat dispensers - note the hinges on the lids edges.
The CPOD, PTD-3, CENTAURI-5, and two CICERO-2 payloads from Terran Orbital Corporation. They were all 6U ‘shoebox’ CubeSats mounted on a plate fixed to a 24 inch port hole on the ESPA ring
All of them have a name and are made by a company, a college school, a university or a government office. There are space companies like Exolauch Inc. who collect a bunch of CubeSat and give their own spin on all these links of the chain between 2nd stage and deployment. Therefore it’s a puzzle that is very difficult to put together.
Just how many hours did I use to write this freaking payload list? 18 hours.
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