Exolaunch, a leading provider of small satellite launch services, has successfully deployed 21 satellites on SpaceX’s Transporter-7 mission. The mission was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, USA, using a SpaceX Falcon 9 on April 14. This marks Exolaunch’s 19th mission and brings the company closer to the milestone of launching 300 satellites.
The Transporter-7 mission saw Exolaunch launch over 550 kilograms of combined mass for multiple international customers from countries including the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, Norway, Turkey, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Monaco, Lithuania, Denmark, Argentina, Colombia, the UAE and Kenya. The payload included 16 CubeSats and 5 microsatellites carrying various Earth observation and communication payloads into a sun-synchronous orbit above an altitude of 500 km.
Exolaunch’s industry-leading EXOpod and EXOpod Nova CubeSat deployers, as well as its CarboNIX microsatellite separation systems, allowed all customer satellites to separate seamlessly from the Falcon 9 upper stage during the flight. The mission’s manifest reflects a rapidly broadening customer base for Exolaunch, with new customers from government, academia and commercial space.
Exolaunch fully managed the missions of all customer satellites clustered on a Falcon 9 launch port and supplied hardware, integration and deployment services for Satellogic on another port. The company used two EXOport multi-satellite adapters to mount all the satellites, including the brand-new Europa-type capable of mounting six different separation systems. Transporter-7 marks the maiden flight of the EXOport Europa on Falcon 9.
Since the beginning of SpaceX’s dedicated rideshare program in 2021, Exolaunch has been using the EXOport adapters to mount and optimally cluster satellites on a single Falcon 9 rideshare port for superior cost-effectiveness. The company will bring this extensive experience to the upcoming Rideshare Plates being introduced by SpaceX for future Transporter missions.
Exolaunch provides capacity for its customers on Falcon 9 rideshare missions under a Multi-Launch Agreement (MLA) with SpaceX. Under the terms of the MLA, Exolaunch provides turnkey mission management, testing, integration services as well as its industry-leading separation systems.
“The Transporter program has become emblematic of the diversity and affordability of NewSpace, and Exolaunch is proud to help drive a more democratic and streamlined access-to-space architecture,” said Connor Pollock, Mission Director at Exolaunch. “Our talented team always rises to the opportunity of launching new customers, going so far as designing custom hardware solutions for each of them.”
Exolaunch is on track to deliver its fastest-paced launch schedule in 10 years, having manifested a quickly-broadening scope of international customers on all upcoming SpaceX Transporter missions this year, as well as providing mission management and deployment systems across multiple new launch vehicles.
Copyright 2023 All rights reserved.