SpaceX is ready to launch some New Year’s fireworks later today with a mission to fly 114 different satellites into orbit to kick off 2023. A Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX will launch the company’s Transporter-6 rideshare mission at 9:56 a.m. EST (1355 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
D-Orbit: Is flying two of their ION tugs on this mission. ION SCV-007 (Glorious Gratia) and ION SCV-008 (Fierce Franciscus) will carry a variety of spacecraft and hosted payloads for customers including Astrocast and AAC Clyde Space.
ICEYE: Has three more SAR satellites (X21, X22, and X27) onboard.
Spire Global: Has a total of six satellites onboard. Three of those will replenish Spire’s constellation of 3U LEMURs with AIS, ADS-B, and RO payloads. Two of the satellites will have a next-generation ADS-B payload, AIS payload, IoT payload for customer Myriota, and will be the first of Spire’s satellites to have their own propulsion. The sixth satellite hosts a polarimetric radio occultation (PRO) payload to collect precipitation data.
The progress on the SpaceX ‘Transporter-6’ launch can be viewed on its video stream here: https://www.spacex.com/launches/index.html
A fantastic start to what looks to be another exciting year for the space Industry.