The dedicated ride-share mission successfully carried "fifty-nine" deployable, Tugs and passive payloads/test beds in orbit.
May 26, 2022; The Falcon 9 Block 5 v1.2 FT B1061.8 rocket lift-off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force station at 18:26:59.990 UTC (14:26:59.990 EDT), carrying 59 payloads from the Transporter mission. 5 on May 25, 2022. The satellites were placed in a sun-synchronous target orbit with a mean altitude of 525 km, inclined at 97 degrees.
The Transporter-5 manifests thirty-nine primary loads (59 Overall) from different nations including the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Bulgaria, Brazil, Czech Republic, Turkey, Finland, Argentina and Norway,
The Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth for a vertical touchdown at Cape Canaveral's Landing Zone 1 about 8.5 minutes after launch "B1061 landed back at launch site in Return to Launch Site mode – return to launch site, RTLS; the landing was made in landing zone 1 – LZ-1, at the Cape Space Force Station, on the former LC-13"
A return to the launch site usually means that after the second stage separation, the booster flips over and does a boost backburn towards the landing pad near to the launch site.
The recovery of the fairing shells was carried out to the north of Cuba, about 600 km downstream of the Cape, by the support vessel Bob. The second stage made its controlled re-entry over the South Pacific
The deployment of the thirty-nine primary payloads took place between 19:26:00.510 to 19:42:22.810 UTC (15:26:00.510 to 15:42:22.810 EDT), after the second ignition of the second stage of the rocket.
The second stage will make its re-entry over the South Pacific, meanwhile, the secondary payloads attached to the stage will perform their task and downlink the data before de-orbit.
This mission is the debut of the new variation of the orbital transfer vehicle, Sherpa-AC. This is an enlarged version of the base Sherpa model with key features including a flight computer, knowledge and attitude control, and a new electrical power system. Major launch customers include D-orbit, Momentus, Xona Space, NearSpace Launch, the Missile Defense Agency, and the MIT Lincoln Laboratory:
KUbeSat, a student-led organization at the University of Kansas, is building a CubeSat, a small cubic satellite that is scheduled to be launched in June 2022, KUbeSat’s Project Manager Arno Prinsloo said. After the launch, KU will be the first institution in Kansas to build and launch a satellite.
KUbeSat has been a member of the NASA CubeSat launch initiative since 2018, which will provide a vehicle to deliver the satellite into space, said Brody Gatza, a junior from Olathe studying aerospace engineering and the president of KUbeSat.
“We're kind of creating the infrastructure to build multiple CubeSats,” Gatza said. “We'd like to have one or two that we're working on at the same time.”
The satellite is equipped with a wide-angle lens camera, said Wyatt George, a sophomore studying aerospace engineering and the vice president of KUbeSat. Once in orbit, the KUbeSat team will be able to make ground observations, detect weather patterns and take pictures.
SelfieSat will take the world’s first selfie from a satellite in space. The external LCD-display displays pictures sent in by the public. A camera mounted on a measuring tape arm photographs the screen with the Earth in the background. The project has inspired and brought space closer to us and proves how accessible the space industry has become.
TBIRD - NASA's Terabyte Infrared Delivery (TBIRD) program will demonstrate a direct-to-Earth laser communication link from a small satellite platform to a small ground terminal at burst rates up to 200 Gbps. Such a link is capable of transferring several terabytes per day to a single ground terminal. A TBIRD payload is currently being developed for flight on a 6U NASA CubeSat.
The LESSONIA-1 satellites (Carcará I and Carcará II) for Brazil service will be deployed from the D-Orbit ION ejector satellite:
The Lessonia Project consists of the acquisition of several low-orbit satellites, which seek to meet the needs of the Armed Forces, the Management and Operational Center of the Amazon Protection System, and other government agencies.
The imaging system of the Lessonia Project uses an active detection sensor that makes it possible to generate high-resolution images, at any time of day or night, regardless of the weather situation, because either signal crosses the clouds, and will allow continuous monitoring of areas of interest of Brazil.
The images obtained will serve to combat drug trafficking and illegal mining, observe burns, update cartographic data, determine the navigability of two rivers, or monitor natural disasters, and support border surveillance and control operations. According to FAB, the satellites have 1 cubic meter, weigh 5 kilos and have 5 solar panels and 300W power. The total value of the contract between the Air Force Command and the company ICEYE is US$ 33,874,000.00.
Outpost demonstration mission (Outpost Mars Demo-1)
Nanoracks designed a self-contained hosted payload platform to demonstrate on-orbit, debris-free, robotic metal cutting. Nanoracks and Maxar will have up to one hour to complete the cutting of three metal pieces, "The same material is used on the outer shell of ULA's Vulcan Centaur". The demonstration itself will occur about 9 minutes into the flight and will be finished approximately 10 minutes later. The rest of the time the team will downlink the photos and video to the ground stations until the vehicle and hosted payloads de-orbit over the Pacific.
“We see this Outpost demonstration mission as contributing to NASA’s efforts to go to the Moon, Mars, and deep space,” says Marshall Smith, Nanoracks Senior Vice President of Space Systems. “NASA continues to turn to industry to test new exploration technologies, and we’re thrilled to support the agency’s goals through this demonstration while promoting the benefits of sustainable technology.”
ASCENSION (Celestis 21)
Ascension’s launch service will be provided by OmniTeq, and the Celestis payload will be integrated into the Varisat High Frequency (a.k.a. shortwave radio) Communications Satellite platform. Celestis Ascension Flight payload will be housed in a 1U cubesat and deployed into Earth orbit, The estimated orbital lifetime of the satellite platform is more than 8 years.
Ascension will be the 9th Earth Orbit Service mission for Celestis, and the 23rd overall mission since the company’s founding in 1994.
Launch, Landing, and Payload Deploy Sequence Timeline
All times are approximate
HR/MIN/SEC EVENT
00:00:00 Lift-off
00:01:12 Max Q (moment of peak mechanical stress on the rocket)
00:02:16 1st stage main engine cutoff (MECO)
00:02:19 1st and 2nd stages separate
00:02:27 2nd stage engine starts
00:02:32 1st stage boostback burn begins
00:03:19 1st stage boostback burn complete
00:03:47 Fairing deployment
00:06:43 1st stage entry burn begins
00:07:08 1st stage entry burn ends
00:08:00 1st stage landing burn begins
00:08:25 2nd stage engine cutoff (SECO)
00:08:33 1st stage landing
00:08:35 Outpost Mars Demo 1 experiment initiation, manifested by Nanoracks
00:55:27 2nd stage engine restarts (SES-2)
00:55:59 2nd stage engine cutoff (SECO-2)
00:59:00 GeoOptics CICERO-2 Vehicle 2 deploys, manifested by Terran Orbital
00:59:09 SharedSat_2141 deploys, manifested by Exolaunch
00:59:18 NASA Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator 3 deploys, manifested by Terran Orbital
00:59:17 LEMUR 2 KAREN_B deploys, manifested by Exolaunch
00:59:37 URDANETA deploys, manifested by Exolaunch
00:59:46 GeoOptics CICERO-2 Vehicle 1 deploys, manifested by Terran Orbital
00:59:56 LEMUR 2 VANDENDRIES deploys, manifested by Exolaunch
01:00:05 Omnispace Spark-2 deploys, manifested by Exolaunch
01:00:24 LEMUR 2 TENNYSONLILY deploys, manifested by Exolaunch
01:00:47 GHGSat-C4 Penny deploys
01:01:00 Planetum-1 and SPiN-1 deploy, manifested by Exolaunch
01:01:09 LEMUR 2 HANCOM-1 deploys, manifested by Exolaunch
01:01:21 GHGSat-C3 Luca deploys
01:01:38 NASA CubeSat Proximity Operations Demonstration deploys,(Terran Orbital)
01:01:50 Connecta T1.1 deploys, manifested by Exolaunch
01:01:59 LEMUR 2 MIMI1307 deploys, manifested by Exolaunch
01:02:13 GHGSat-C5 Diako deploys
01:03:18 Foresail-1 deploys, manifested by Exolaunch
01:03:49 Fleet Space Centauri-5 deploys, manifested by Terran Orbital
01:04:04 CnCE V4 and CnCE V5 deploys
01:04:20 Satellogic’s Newsat 28 deploys
01:04:42 Spaceflight Inc’s Sherpa-AC1 deploys
01:05:28 Varisat-1C deploys, manifested by Momentus
01:05:43 AMS deploys
01:06:07 BroncoSat-1 deploys, manifested by Momentus
01:06:35 Satellogic’s Newsat 29 deploys
01:08:19 Satellogic’s Newsat 30 deploys
01:08:40 First ICEYE deploys, manifested by Exolaunch
01:09:00 Satellogic’s Newsat 31 deploys
01:09:22 D-Orbit’s ION SCV006 Thrilling Thomas deploys
01:09:44 Umbra deploys
01:10:05 HaykEye 360’s Hawk-5B deploys
01:10:26 HaykEye 360’s Hawk-5C deploys
01:10:48 HaykEye 360’s Hawk-5A deploys
01:11:17 Momentus’ Vigoride deploys
01:11:56 Second ICEYE deploys, manifested by Exolaunch
01:12:29 Third ICEYE deploys, manifested by Exolaunch
01:12:51 Fourth ICEYE deploys, manifested by Exolaunch
01:15:22 Fifth ICEYE deploys, manifested by Exolaunch