Screenshot from SpaceX Webcast of the Transporter 9 launch. An very clear ocean view today
Mission Rundown: SpaceX Falcon 9 - Transporter 9
Written: November 11, 2023
Hitchhikers on the southern express
SpaceX conducted its 80th launch of 2023 with the Transporter 9 rideshare mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Station.
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket November 11 at 10:49 PST on Saturday, 18:49:00 UTC, 2023. Falcon 9’s first stage B1071-12 returned to shore at Landing Zone-4 approximately seven and a half minutes after launch.
This was the ninth dedicated rideshare mission organized by SpaceX and carried 113 payloads into a sun-synchronous orbit — some of which will be deployed later from three independent space tugs that are on the mission.
The payloads range in size from picosatellites of less than a kilogram — measuring only five centimeters on each side — to microsatellites massing around 300 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 9 launch date slipped from its original October 12, 2023 target, ending up on November 9, 2023.
B1071-12 will have made its twelfth flight after launching its next mission:
The second stage of the vehicle featured the shorter variant of the nozzle extension on the MVac engine. This new nozzle extension is optimized for cost and manufacturability at the expense of thrust and specific impulse efficiency and will be used on missions where Falcon 9’s full performance is not needed.
The second stage performed three burns throughout this mission. The first two brought the vehicle to a nearly circular orbit around 540 km in altitude and a 97.6-degree inclination to deploy most of the payloads starting about an hour after launch.
The third burn will deorbit the second stage in the Pacific Ocean.
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 9’s flightpath with the expected fairing splashdown site 551 km downrange
The Merlin engine lit for 17 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 engine burn was used to land B1071-12 on LZ-4. It was the 243rd successful landing overall of a Falcon rocket.
Second stage burned for 5 minutes 59 seconds to insert itself into its low Earth orbit. This initial orbit measured 207 km x 537 km.
After that the second stage coasted for 42 minutes before Second Engine Start (SES-2) for 4 seconds, entering its orbit of 537 x 540 km at an inclination of 97.4 degrees. Starting at T+00:54:01 minutes, the rest of the payloads began deploying. The deployment sequence then lasted for 19 minutes 30 seconds.
B1071-12 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, which 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 9 Payload
SpaceX will deploy 89 payloads consisting of 113 cubesats, microsatellites and space tugs, all to be launched into a Sun-Synchronous Orbit.
Based on this SpaceX payload photo we have a six to four sided tower with five floors A - E.
These satellites are directly attached to the central tower mounted directly on the payload adapter cone. The first tower ‘floor’ is a flat six sided section upon which the next four flat sided ‘floors’ are mounted. The payloads are either directly attached to ports or plates mounted onto this four sided tower in the center of the fairing.
Attachment points on each tower wall are provided, eliminating the previously ESPA rings with four to six 24 inch - six to eight 15 inch ports on the individual type of ESPA ring.
The tower wall will change the payload positions to floors or levels on side A, B, C and D with level 2-5 and the top position as the cake tier. CubeSat dispensers can now be directly mounted to the tower walls, and microsatellites can be attached to a 15-24 inch portring mounted on the tower wall. Only the floor numbers are changeable.
The square tower holding the satellites is mounted directly on the payload adapter cone. From there it gets complicated with regard to what sits where.
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 three ‘space tug’ that will release its payloads at a later time — possibly after shifting and adjusting to another orbit.
D-Orbit’s ION-SCV013 “Ultimate Hugo” orbital transfer vehicle will be carrying:
Apogeo - 9 small 1/3U CubeSats on board for later deployment.
EPICHyper-3 (6U CubeSat, AAC Clyde Space for Wyvern)
EPICHyper-3 is a part of AAC Clyde Space, who owns and operates the three satellites, while Wyvern owns the hyperspectral data delivered by the satellite. EPICHyper-3 is from the EPIC VIEW family of spacecrafts, which are optimized to host cutting-edge imagers, enabling them to deliver multi-spectral and hyperspectral images of the Earth's surface. EPICHyper-3 is a part of ‘smart farming’ that can optimize yields, increase soil quality, and improve water management.
Intuition 1 (12 kg 6U CubeSat, KP Labs, Poland)
Intuition-1 is a technology demonstrator that will observe the Earth using a hyperspectral instrument and an on-board computing unit capable of processing data using neural networks (artificial intelligence) in orbit. The satellites processing power allows segmentation of hyperspectral images in orbit.
Segmentation means the ability to automatically determine the features of images – that is, to search for similar patterns. Such patterns may be e.g. diseases of crops or climate anomalies such as droughts.
OSW Cazorla (3U CubeSat, Odyssey Spaceworks, using Endurosat bus)
The OSW Cazorla satellite will monitor and measure the growth and effectiveness of fruit fly protein cells in LEO gravity compared to an Earth-based identical experiment. It will help determine cell culture production feasibility in space and could serve as a proof point for off-world pharmaceutical production.
Sig-4 - Four small ‘Sateliot’ microsatellites and
Ymir-1 (3U CubeSat, Saab/AAC Clyde Space)
Ymir-1 will carry a Saab VDES (VHF Data Exchange System) payload for two-way communication between satellite and ground and ORBCOMM will integrate the data in its distribution center for maritime communications. The goal of the consortium is to create a global maritime communication network enabling ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore communication everywhere on the globe.
Three hosted payloads StarDustMe, DCubed Demo and the OTV satellite computer called Antelope are mounted aboard the ION-SCV013.
Transporter 9 launch integrators include Exolaunch, who will deploy 23 CubeSats of all sizes and 4 microsatellites on Transporter 9. Exolaunch is a German-based launch service and separation system provider for smallsat payloads.
Old graphic by ExoLaunch Inc. show their capability to mount and deploy many types of payloads
Mounted on the 15 inch CarboNIX separation ring, a large microsatellite can be deployed for the customer. The EXOpod CubeSat deployer is built to deploy a 3U CubeSat, but can be filled with smaller CubeSats from 1/4U ‘12 pieces’ to 1.5U ‘two pieces’.
Quad EXOpods mounted on a porthole extension plate can deploy CubeSats ranging from four 3U CubeSats, two 6U CubeSats to one 12U CubeSat.
The EXOport porthole reducer - 24 inch to 15 inch - plate, can deploy a number of ‘Toolbox’ sized 12U to 24U CubeSats even up to four minisatellites from 15 inch ports.
Exolaunch will facilitate the deployment of the following CubeSats and microsatellites:
Barry-1 (3U CubeSat, Endurosat, with Rogue Space Systems payload)
The IVO Quantum Drive is also aboard Barry-1. This CubeSat marked B1B2 is apparently able to track space debris down and deorbit it?
BRO-10 & 11(2x 6U CubeSats) UnseenLabs
The two BRO 6U CubeSats are maritime surveillance satellites. They will identify ships, their geolocation and the characterization of any given vessel type.
Connecta T3.1 & T3.2 (2x 3U CubeSats, Plan-S)
The "Double Trouble" twin satellites, Connecta T3.1 & Connecta T3.2, will serve as an experimental platform to validate the functionality, performance, reliability, and efficiency of ISL - Inter-Satellite Link.
Djibouti-1A (1U CubeSat, CERD/CSUM, Djibouti)
Djibouti-1A is an African Earth Observation CubeSat, and a collaboration between engineers based in Djibouti and the University of Montpellier, will collect data from climatological stations.
Ella 1 (LEMUR 2) (4U CubeSat, Spire for hiSky)
Ella 1 is the first 4U CubeSat built by Spire, designed to showcase the capabilities of hiSky’s Smartellite IoT ground network to switch between satellites in different orbits.
Pearl 1C and 1H (2x 6U CubeSat, National Central University and Foxconn)
PEARL 1C and 1H is a Taiwanese broadband communications CubeSat built by Hon Hai (#Foxconn) - pioneer of non-terrestrial communication technologies.
PEARL 1C has a Ka-band communications payload and a probe for ionospheric plasma measurement. PEARL 1H has a broadband communication experiment with a phased array antenna.
GHGSat (3x 16U LEMUR 2 CubeSats, built by Spire)
GHGSat C9, C10, and C11 will be named after the engineer's children: Juba, Eliot and Vanguard.
GHGSat's satellites all have high-resolution interferometer methane sensors that have a low detection threshold and high resolution. C10 also has a CO2 sensor. ‘Hosted’ could mean they are part of the instrument package on a CubeSat.
ICEYE (4 x 90/150kg X-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) microsatellites)
The ICEYE microsatellite spacecrafts 31, 32, 34, 35 with a SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) instrument is built and developed by the commercial Earth Observation (EO) company ICEYE Ltd. of Espoo, Finland.
ICEYE SAR microsatellites, each with a wet/dry mass of 85/150 kg, are side-looking X-band SAR sensors utilizing active phased array antenna steerable technology. It is both right- and left-looking and capable of acquiring satellite imagery of Earth using stripmap, spotlight and ScanSAR imaging modes.
Mango Two (5,7 kg 2x 3U CubeSats, Spire) ISL demonstration
Mango Two A&B will host remote sensing payloads for a Spire customer. The Mango-2 is a 3U Cubesat, roughly 12cm x 12cm x 38cm in its stowed configuration. It has deployable solar arrays and antennas.
Each satellite includes UHF, S-Band, and X-Band communications systems for telemetry and data transmission, and a 3-axis attitude determination and control system (ADCS).
Mantis (10 kg 12U CubeSat, Satlantis/Open Cosmos/Space UK/ESA)
MANTIS is a demonstration mission to develop, build, launch and operate an innovative nanosatellite, and provide low-latency and targeted imagery tailored to the data needs of the oil and gas sector. Oil and gas resources are found in remote, hostile, and hazardous regions around the world, with energy companies increasingly taking on more complex and expensive projects to locate and produce these resources.
NinjaSat (10 kg 6U CubeSat, built by Nanoavionics)
The 10 kg shoebox sized 6U "NinjaSat" owned by Riken/Mitsui Bussan Aerospace, Japan. It will study tiny black holes and supernovae known for their space-time-bending heaviness.
Observer-1A (16U CubeSat, Nara Space, Korea)
Observer-1A was completed in Berlin and is the 1st gen of NARA's EO constellation.
OrbAstro TR1 (?U, OrbAstro)
OrbAstro PC1 (?U, OrbAstro)
Outpost Mission 2 (4,35 kg 3U CubeSat, Outpost)
Outpost will demonstrate the NGSO 3U cube satellite Outpost Mission 2. Inflating a thermal protection system using a gas generator is required to protect the spacecraft on reentry to celestial bodies with atmospheres. NASA's hypersonic inflatable aerodynamic decelerator (“HIAD”) is one such system being developed for missions to planets and moons with atmospheres as well as returning payloads to Earth.
PEARL 1C/1H (2x 6U XL CubeSats, Foxconn [Hon Hai], Taiwan)
PLATERO (6U CubeSat, Open Cosmos)
PLATERO cube satellite is funded by the @AndaluciaJunta through @AgapaAndalucia and will integrate EO, IoT, and AI for enhanced environmental monitoring. PLATERO is a Spanish shoebox sized CubeSat.
Platform 5 (?U, Endurosat)
ProtoMéthée-1 (30 kg 16U CubeSat, built by Nanoavionics)
ProtoMéthée-1 is owned by PROMÉTHÉE Earth Intelligence, France, The 16U high-resolution CubeSat for PROMETHEE Space is the size of a microwave weighing nearly 30kg. All that mass will deliver 1.5-meter resolution imagery in 7 spectral bands for Promethee's data platform.
Vinlèr Constellation (SNC) (4x 6U LEMUR CubeSats, Spire) rf intelligence
Sierra Nevada Corporation - SNC is a global aerospace and national security leader, delivering tailored solutions to government and commercial customers with technological applications in satellites and space exploration, aircraft integration, navigation and guidance systems, security and threat detection, scientific research, and infrastructure protection.
The four 6U LEMUR CubeSat will conduct RF collection and analysis for SNC.
Veronika (1U CubeSat, Spacemanic/Boris Procik, Slovakia)
Veronika is the 3rd-ever Slovak satellite, built by @spacemanictech, carries two Earth observation cameras to help popularize space in the country. Veronika is integrated in the EXOpod Nova deployer.
Maveric will facilitate the deployment of the following CubeSats:
GENMAT-1 (8.8 kg 6U CubeSat)
GENMAT-1 will use the correlated geodetic mineralogical data from its Hyper Spectral Imager (HSI) to locate minerals and potentially other sensible resources of interest. That is including in-ground, surface persistent, and uptake into living matter. Data will be correlated with ground truth field observations to validate the image processing software. The mission will end after two years, when GENMAT-1 deorbits.
IRIS C2 (?)
OMNI-LER1 (5.25 kg 3U CubeSat)
OMNI-LER1 will conduct research experiments of on-board blockchain technology to measure performance, behavior, latency, and reliability of blockchain transactions in LEO. Experiments will include transactions of data acquired from on-board sensors and use of smart contracts for automated transactions.
The data will be obtained by collecting Earth images, radiation, and onboard sensory data for transacting as part of blockchain transactions. Blockchain and system data will also be logged. The data will be analyzed by researchers at Internet Think Tank
SEOPS will facilitate the deployment of the following CubeSats:
HERON Mk. II (3U, U. of Toronto)
KAFASAT (3U, Republic of Korea Air Force) (maybe on 425 Project flight?)
Tiger-5/6 (2x 6U, OQ Technologies)
Tiger-5/6 are built by the Danish company Space Inventors
Momentus ‘Wedgieride’ will facilitate the deployment of the following CubeSats:
AMAN-1 (3U CubeSat, SatRev/Oman) (via Momentus)
AMAN-1 Earth Observation CubeSat will be deployed for SatRev of Poland. The satellite can also be used for other services such as land survey, precision agriculture, weather, environmental and smart cities.
Hello Test 1 & 2 (2 ?P 1/8U CubeSats, Hello Space, Turkey) (via Momentus)
The Hello Test 1 & 2 pocket cube satellites will be deployed for Hello Space of Turkey as part of their “Hello for IoT'' mission. The two pocket cubes are part of Hello Space’s broader mission to enable worldwide IoT ecosystems and end-to-data data services for various industries.
JinjuSat-1 (2U CubeSat, CONTEC, South Korea) (via Momentus)
JINJUSat-1 CubeSat will be deployed for CONTEC Co. of the Republic of Korea. JINJUSat-1 is spearheaded by three entities: Jinju City, Korea Testing Laboratory, and Gyeongsang National University.
Cameras mounted on the JINJUSat-1 CubeSat will take pictures of Earth.
Picacho (1U CubeSat, Lunasonde, USA) (via Momentus)
Picacho CubeSat will be deployed for Lunasonde - a U.S. sub-surface imaging company with the goal of making underground resources – like water and minerals – easier to find.
The Picacho CubeSat is a technology demonstration of Lunasonde’s sensors. It will measure the power spectral density of low-frequency radio signals in the ionosphere, which will help inform designs for the company’s future CubeSats.
Impulse Space will facilitate the deployment of the following two CubeSats:
Mira S/N 2 - LEO Express-1 mission ?U CubeSat - GoToImpulse
LEO Express-1 from Tom Muller’s company Impulse Space’s is an OTV that is hosting the “Time We’ll Tell” mission, a position, navigation, and time satellite for TrustPoint.
Time We'll Tell (?U CubeSat, TrustPoint)
The second TrustPoint satellite, "Time We’ll Tell," features an advanced compact Position, Navigation, and Time (PNT) Payload that will further mature and demonstrate TrustPoint’s core technologies as it progresses towards delivering GPS-independent C-Band global time and positioning services from Low Earth Orbit.
ExoTrail spacevan ?kg space tug
Spacevan is ExoTrail’s new space tug, that will depart from Transporter 9 on a test flight.
Pelican-1 (160 kg microsatellite, Planet)
The Pelican-1 microsatellite is an optical Earth imaging smallsat with a wet/dry launch mass of no greater than 160/146 kg. Pelican-1 has cold gas and electric propulsion, particularly, Hall Effect Thruster with 14,5 kg xenon propellant. Two deployable InGaAs solar arrays will store power in the COTS Lithium-Ion battery cells.
SuperDove Flock 4q (36x 1/4U CubeSats in nine 3U CubeSat deployer, Planet)
The SuperDoves, Planet’s Flock 4q, will contribute to Planet’s daily Earth monitoring PlanetScope mission.
SpaceX will facilitate the deployment of the following CubeSats and microsatellites:
SPIP (120 kg microsatellite, Aerospacelab, France)
SPIP (MultiSPectral Imagery Prototype) is designed and built by Aerospacelab with the financial support of the Walloon Region (SPW), is based on its Versatile Satellite Platform.
SPIP’s mission will demonstrate the performances of Earth Observation payloads prototypes, as a building block for upcoming multispectral missions.
Umbra 7/8 (2x 83kg microsatellites, Umbra)
Umbra under the DARPA contract will demonstrate a technique known as bistatic collection. Monostatic SAR imaging is done with a single radar that has the transmitter and receiver collocated. Bistatic imaging uses two radars, one that transmits and receives, and the other that only receives.
The constellation of Umbra satellites in pairs flying in tight formation to support bistatic collection and other combined operations that provide unique phenomenology.
AETHER 1/2 (2x ?kg, Kepler Communications)
LEMUR 2 NANAZ (3U, Spire)
Alba Orbital will facilitate the deployment of the following three PocketQubes:
ROM-3 (2P PocketQube 1/4U CubeSats, RomSpace, Romania)
ROM-3 is the second Romanian PocketQube satellite and is built by five students from the Bucharest International Informatics High School. ROM-3 measures 5x5x10 cm and has passed the launch tests.
HADES-D (1.5P, AMSAT EA, Spain)
Space ANT-D (1P PocketQube 1/8U CubeSats, SpaceIn, Malaysia)
SpaceANT is a 1P PocketQube satellite that’s no bigger than a rubik’s cube, measuring at just 5x5x5 cm and weighing under 250g. SpaceANT-D’s primary mission is to store and forward sensor data using LoRa technology for IoT monitoring systems from agriculture to transportation in Southeast Asia.
Unknown facilitators
RapidEO (? CubeSat, L3Harris for US government)
RapidEO is a US government classified CubeSat/Microsatellite built by L3Harris
Stork-7 (1x 3U CubeSats, SatRev, Poland)
STORK-7 cube satellite from the Wrocław-based company @satrev_space will test 28 perovskite Solar’ cells from the company @SauleTech. No word on the STORK-8 cube satellite as yet.
MP42 (100 kg+ 42U microsatellite built by Nanoavionics)
The MP42 microsatellite is a washing machine-sized weighing well over 100kg. It will put its weight into demonstrating our undisclosed customer technologies in orbit.
Xcraft (? kg microsatellite, Xplore)
Xcraft is a MicroSat collecting hyperspectral imaging, high-resolution video and ultraviolet data for Xplore.
SpIRIT (11,5 kg 6U CubeSat, University of Melbourne, Australia)
The SpIRIT CubeSatis based Inovor’s Apogee satellite bus – an Australian-made turnkey satellite platform. Apogee features power, telemetry, attitude control, and spacecraft command and control systems in a modular structure. SpIRIT is equipped with the Neumann Drive: a lightweight, high-efficiency solar-electric propulsion system. It uses solid metal as a fuel source and is scalable up to larger spacecraft.
Possible Payloads:
Pony Express (2x 12U CubeSats, aka Tyvak-0261/-0262)
Falconsat-X
GNOMES-4 (PlanetiQ, 41.7kg microsatellite)
MuSat-2 (67.4 kg microsatellite, Muon Space) Delayed to Transporter 10
The MuSat satellites are demonstration spacecraft with two primary goals. The first goal is to demonstrate and validate the on-orbit performance of Muon Space’s in-house avionics suite. The second goal is to provide validation and early commercial data from GNSS occultation and reflectometry payloads as well additional payloads that will be hosted on the spacecraft.
Deployment schedule of Transporter 9
After the 2nd stage engine first cut-off the deployment begins in this order. This list is written with following sources: NasaSpaceFlight on payloads, EOportal on some details and Günters Space Page with even finer details starting with the bigger satellites.
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.
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