SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 - Transporter-2 - Launching June 30, 2021
Screenshot from SpaceX Webcast of the launch of Transporter-2
Mission Rundown: SpaceX Falcon 9 B5 - Transporter-2
Written: August 7, 2021
88 keys to unlocking Heaven’s door
On Wednesday, June 30 at 15:31 EDT - 19:31 UTC SpaceX successfully launched 88 satellites into a Sun-Synchronous orbit on their second dedicated rideshare mission, Transporter-2. The Falcon 9 Block 5 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 - SLC-40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, in Florida, USA.
Roughly 8 minutes after launch, the first stage successfully performed a return to launch site (RTLS) landing, and softly touched down on Landing Zone 1.
To reach this orbit, SpaceX would normally launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, in a south-southwesterly direction. Instead, this mission lifted off from Florida and used the polar launch corridor that allows a Falcon 9 to set a course to fly south-southeast between Florida and The Bahamas and then, once the second stage separates, perform a “dogleg” maneuver to the south-southwest to achieve the mission’s needed inclination.
The Dogleg burns in red lines for stage 1 and 2 - Just where are you pointing that rocket engine?
Transporter-2 was the third mission since 1969 to use this polar corridor route from Florida. SAOCOM-1B in late August 2020 was the first. This is beginning to look like SpaceX are planning to cut loose Vandenberg Air Force Base as a regular launch site, because there are too few missions to Polar orbits.
Following SECO-2, all paying customer payloads were successfully deployed. However, unlike SpaceX’s SSO-A mission, all satellites have been successfully in communication with their owners from ground stations worldwide.
Following customer payload deployment, the 3 Starlink satellites were deployed. A note of interest, these Starlink satellites were equipped with a laser communication system. While only in V0.9 configuration, they will be used to test communication just between the satellites instead of relying on ground stations.
B1060 had previously supported 7 missions; Transporter-2 was this booster’s eighth flight; its designation became B1060-8.
B1050-8 performed a static fire test on SLC-40 June 22 at 07:42 EDT for 10 seconds.
After stage separation, the Falcon 9 will conduct 3 burns, a 43 second long three engine boost back burn to change flight direction back to the launch site, a 23 second long three engine reentry burn to break the descending boosters speed just before hitting the denser parts of the atmosphere and a 33 second landing burn to shave of the last 900 km/h or so speed at 4.8 km altitude to zero at touchdown. These three vital burns will make the booster softly touch down at LZ-1.
SpaceX is the first entity ever to recover and refly its fairings.
The recovery ship HOS Briarwood will recover the fairing halves from the water. After being jettisoned, the two fairing halves used cold gas thrusters to orientate themselves as they descended through the atmosphere. Once at a lower altitude, they deployed parafoils to help them glide down to a soft landing for recovery.
This odd fairing couple on Transporter-2 is flying for the third time. The active half of the payload fairings was on the Transporter-1 and Starlink L21 missions, the other passive half flew on SAOCOM 1B and Starlink L18 missions.
The 88 Payloads
First piece of information is, that four companies are providing other minisatellite and CubeSat builders and producers the means to deploy their space vehicles. These companies are Exolaunch from Berlin, Spaceflight Inc. Seattle, WA, ISILaunch of ISISpace, Delft, the Netherlands and D-Orbit of Fino Mornasco (HQs), Italy.
Exolaunch from Berlin used four 24 inch EXO ports to deploy as counted 6 minisatellites and 19 CubeSats. Their mission is called Fingerspitzengefuhl.
Spaceflight Inc. used two 24 inch ESPA ports to deploy freeflyer Sherpa-FX2 and electric flyer Sherpa-LTE1 to deploy each 4 & 2 Minisatellites and 24 & 8 CubeSats. One payload is hosted by Sherpa-FX2 and flies with it.
D-Orbit used one 24 inch port to deploy 3 CubeSats and its freeflying ION SCV 003 Wild Ride space tug to host 3 payloads and deploy 3 CubeSats.
NASA’s Maverick Space deployed 2 Cubesats from the 2nd stage engine bay.
SpaceX is, as a major company, also providing 24 inch ports to a number of minor companies, who need their minisatellites and CubeSats deployed in the right order under controlled circumstances.
SpaceX used an unknown number of 24 inch ports on the ESPA rings to deploy the rest 5 Minisatellites and 4 CubeSats plus their 3 Starlink V1.5 laser data relay satellites.
All mentioned numbers of minisatellites and CubeSats below are found in this source, names, companies and sizes are still a jumble to get through. Spacex Transporter-2 launched the whole kitten kaboodle anyway.
Honey. Size doesn’t matter.
In the world of satellites size and mass does matter. Regular GEO satellites weigh several tons and are the sizes of large transport vans filled with fuel tanks, batteries, solar cells, thrusters, transmitters, reflectors and receivers plus a flight computer inside.
Regular satellites are smaller versions of GEO satellites weighing only a few tons down to several hundred kilos. Minisatellites weigh around 50 to 100 kilos, which is what most of the larger payloads on Transporter-2 weigh.
Microsatellites have been standardized in cubed units with sides of 4 inch cubed in a 1U unit. 4 x 4 x 4 inch cubes filled with electronics are now called CubeSats. Three cubes in a row 3U looks like a loaf of bread. Six cubes in two rows 6U looks like a shoebox. Twelve cubes of three U by four rows 12U are just a toolbox measuring 8 x 8 x 12 inches.
CubeSats can be made smaller with SpaceBEE’s being the smallest ¼ U, they are being made by Space Companies these days. They are called ‘Slices’ of bread.
Satellites Minisatellites Microsatellites CubeSats and dispenser packs are mounted on 24 inch portholes on 4-6 foot ESPA rings which are attached to Payload Adapter Fittings that reduces the 2nd stage 12 foot width to four feet depending on the given size of the payload satellites release ring. There is some visual info in this PDF document.
A 24 inch port hole can be fitted with a holding plate where 2, 3 or 4 Minisatellites can sit waiting to be deployed. Up to 9 quad packs of CubeSat dispensers can sit on it as well.
Artist's rendition of rideshare deployments from Transporter 1 (image credit: Exolaunch)
CubeSats need dispensers to be deployed on time and in order. 3U dispensers are usually mounted in quad packs with 4 dispensers controlled by a launch timer on a computer in a ground station or in the 2nd stage flight computer.
On Transporter-1 forty-eight 3U Dove CubeSats were deployed one by one from twelve quad pack dispensers, where nine of them were attached 3 by 3 to a holding plate mounted to a 24 inch port on one of the ESPA rings. One quad pack was mounted somewhere else and the last two quad packs were mounted on D-Orbit-s free flyer.
So there are a lot of possibilities to deploy Minisatellites and CubeSats from ports on ESPA rings mounted on a Payload Adaptor Fitting attached to the 2nd stage of Falcon 9, and there are a lot of links in the chain from the deploy controller to the dispenser door.
Physically there are 3 ESPA rings A, B and C plus top ESPA ring D with 15 inch portholes. Each Port has a number so A 1-4, B 1-4, C 1-4 and D 1-6 apply to the list below. If there is a holding plate mounted on the port then port 2 on ring A is subdivided into 2.1 to 2.4. Isn’t that crystal clear or a Quad CubeSat dispenser on Port 1.3 deploys 1.3a, b and c.
Following ports numbers are given after deployment order. Their actual port numbers are unknown I’m sorry to say, but I had to cut a corner here and those EXOPorts didn’t help. D rings 6 ports could be deployed in this order 1, 4, 5, 3, 2 and 6 or a similar jumbled order.
Order please. Can we have the launch order?
How do you get some kind of order in this jumble of satellite companies and satellite types and who took off first into the darkness of space. You study even HARDER and a year later you found another couple of sources. Yaeey… EO portal and Günther.
T+00:57:50 - Deployment of NASA’s PACE-1 6U CubeSat - from 2nd stage engine bay
T+00:57:57 - Deployment of Satellogic’s NewSat-19 Minisatellite from A Port 2.1 of 4
T+00:58:04 - Deployment of the 1st ICEYE X-10 SAR minisatellite from A EXOPort-5.1
T+00:58:32 - Deployment of NASA’s TROPICS Pathfinder 3U CubeSat - 2nd stage
T+00:58:37 - Deployment of PlanetiQ’s GNOMES-2 30 kg 12U CubeSat from D port 3
T+00:58:44 - Deployment of Tyvak-0173 6U CubeSat from ESPA ring D port 4.1
T+00:59:47 - Deployment of ICEYE X-11 SAR Minisatellite from A port 1 EXOPort-3.1
T+01:00:00 - Deployment of Tyvak-0211 6U CubeSat from ESPA ring D port 4.2
T+01:00:08 - Deployment of Loft Orbital’s YAM-3 Minisatellite from A p4 EXOPort-5.2
T+01:00:18 - Deployment of TU Berlin’s TUBIN Minisatellite from A port 1 EXOPort-3.2
T+01:00:23 - Deployment of UmbraSAR Minisatellite from ESPA ring D port 1
T+01:00:33 - Deployment of D-Orbit’s ION with 3 Payloads and 3 CubeSats ring B port 1
T+01:xx:xx - Deployment of D-Orbit’s Vigoride-2 Quad with 3 CubeSats ring B port 4 ???
T+01:01:50 - Deployment of SDA/General Atomics/Peraton’s 12U LINCS-2 D port 5
T+01:02:16 - Deployment of Satellogic’s NewSat-20 Minisatellite from A Port 2.2
T+01:02:30 - Deployment of Satellogic’s NewSat-21 Minisatellite from A Port 2.3
T+01:02:40 - Deployment of Capella 5 SAR Minisatellite from ESPA ring D port 2
T+01:02:46 - Deployment of ICEYE X12 SAR Minisatellite from A port 3 EXOPort-4.1
T+01:04:12 - Deployment of SDA/General Atomics/Peraton’s 12U LINCS-1 D port 6
T+01:04:29 - Deployment of DARPA/SDA/AF Research Lab Mandrake-2 Able B port 2
T+01:05:33 - Deployment of ICEYE X13 SAR minisatellite from A port 3 EXOPort-4.2
T+01:06:48 - Deployment of Swarm’s 16 SpaceBee’s ¼ U CubeSats from A EXOPort-3.3
T+01:06:48 - Deployment of Swarm’s 12 SpaceBee’s ¼ U CubeSats from Sherpa-FX2
T+01:07:17 - Deployment of NanoAvionics’ D2/AtlaCom-1 6U Cube from A EXOPort-4.3
T+01:07:24 - Deployment of Spire’s LEMUR number 1 3U CubeSat from A EXOPort-4.3b
T+01:07:47 - Deployment of Satellogic’s NewSat-22 minisatellite from A Port 2.4
T+01:07:56 - Deployment of Loft Orbital’s YAM-2 minisatellite from ESPA C port 3
T+01:09:51 - Deployment of Spire’s LEMUR number 2 3U CubeSat from A EXOPort-4.3c
T+01:09:58 - Deployment of DARPA/SDA/AF Research Lab Mandrake-2 Baker B port 3
T+01:21:10 - Deployment of Spaceflight Inc.’s Sherpa-FX2 from ESPA ring C port 1
T+01:21:10 - Deployment of Spaceflight Inc.’s Sherpa-LTE1 from ESPA ring C port 2
T+01:21:14 - Deployment of 3 Starlink V0.9 laser data relay satellites from SpaceX
ESPA ring C port 4 is empty. EXOPort 3, 4 and 5 are ESPA ring A ports 1, 3 and 4 ‘just to mess with my head’ and they all used holding plates.
With 5-6 different sources, everything is more clear on this rideshare launch. Here’s a list of all 88 satellites and payloads launched on the Transporter-2 mission:
Sherpa-FX2 space tug for Spaceflight + TagSat-2 as the fixed payload
5 Astrocast 3U CubeSats
3 Spire Lemur 3U CubeSats
Cisese Painani-II 3U CubeSats
3 HawkEye 360 Hawk Minisatellites
Lynk Lynk-06 Shannon Mini Satellite
12 Swarm SpaceBEE ¼ U CubeSats
Sherpa-LTE1 powered space tug for Spaceflight
AstroDigital Shasta Orbital Sidekick Aurora Mini Satellite
4 Kleos KSM-2 6U CubeSats
InSpace Faraday Phoenix 6U CubeSats
Spire’s LEMUR 3U CubeSat
OQTech Tiger-2 Ayan-21 6U CubeSat
Aerospacelab Arthur-1 12U CubeSat
Orbit Fab Tenzing Minisatellite
D-Orbit’s ION SCV-003 Wild Ride space tug - It’s flying the next six-nine lines
LaserCube - hosted payload
Nebula - hosted payload
Worldfloods - hosted payload
W-Cube 3U CubeSat - Reaktor Space, Finland
Ghalib 2U CubeSat - Marshall Intech
NAPA 2 / RTAF-SAT-2 6U CubeSat - Royal Thai Air Force - D-Orbit’s final Payload
Neptuno (Deimos) 3U CubeSat - from Vigoride-2
Spartan (Endurosat) 6U CubeSat - from Vigoride-2
QMR-KWT (Orbital Space) 1U CubeSat - from Vigoride-2 - Also D-Orbit’s Payloads
4 ICEYE SAR Minisatellites
2 Loft Orbital YAM-2 & 3
TUBIN ~20kg Microsat, TU Berlin
Capella 5 SAR 100 kg Minisatellite
4 Satellogic’s NewSat-19-22 Minisatellite
D2/AtlaCom-1 6U CubeSat - built by NanoAvionics
2 Spire Lemur 3U CubeSats
16 Swarm SpaceBEE ¼ U CubeSats
PACE-1 6U CubeSat - NASA - Maverick Surfboard 1 - 2nd stage engine bay
TROPICS Pathfinder 3U CubeSat - NASA - Maverick Surfboard 2
Centauri 4/Tyvak-0211 6U CubeSat, Fleet ?
EG-3/Tyvak-0173 - Echostar Global, 6U CubeSat
2 Mandrake 2A/2B - microsatellites by Astro Digital for DARPA/SDA/AFRL
2 LINCS A/B - 12U CubeSats from GA-EMS for SDA
PlanetIQ GNOMES-2 Minisatellite 30kg
Umbra-2001 Microsat 65 kg
3 Starlink V1.5 data relay satellites for SpaceX
Sherpa-FX2 and Sherpa LTE-1 with silver/green Minisatellites and blue/blau CubeSat dispensers
That’s all folks. My head hurts. Less of a mess this time. Found this… looks like Gold
