Spire Global, ICEYE, Loft Orbital, NanoAvionics, Technical University of Berlin, Satellogic and others
On this dedicated rideshare mission Exolaunch successfully
launched 29 satellites totaling one metric ton for its customers
from the United States, South America and Europe. The mission,
named
‘Fingerspitzengefühl’,
lifted off on June 30 at 19:31 UTC on SpaceX’s Falcon 9
‘Transporter-2’, completing one of the largest and most diverse
rideshare missions for Exolaunch. With this launch, Exolaunch
has flown 170 small satellites on multiple launch vehicles.
Exolaunch’s small satellite cluster included payloads with
cutting-edge technologies for IoT, Earth Observation and
scientific applications, and satellites from its international
customers such as Spire Global, ICEYE, Loft Orbital,
NanoAvionics, and Technical University of Berlin. Exolaunch has
also provided flight hardware, separation systems and
integration services to support Satellogic's four
microsatellites on this mission.
Fingerspitzengefühl is Exolaunch’s 13th rideshare mission. It is also the second
in a series of rideshares Exolaunch is manifesting on Falcon 9
as part of a Multi-Launch Agreement the company signed with
SpaceX in 2020. For every Falcon 9 launch procured through the
Multi-Launch Agreement with SpaceX, Exolaunch ensures
comprehensive rideshare mission management, satellite
integration and deployment services for its customers.
Fingerspitzengefühl
symbolizes Exolaunch’s vast experience in successfully deploying
customers’ satellites into orbit, inherent to Exolaunch
ingenuity and mastery that the company has demonstrated once
more. It’s also a continuation of the individual mission names
that started with ‘Zeitgeist’, literally ‘Spirit of the Time’,
Exolaunch’s previous rideshare launch aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9
in January 2021.
To maximize payload capacity and cost-effectiveness for the
customers of this mission, Exolaunch used its recent product
addition, EXOport, a flexible multi-satellite adapter designed
to optimally accommodate microsatellites and cubesats on a
single Falcon 9 ESPA port. The company also utilized its
proprietary flight-proven separation systems –
CarboNIX, the next generation shock-free separation system for
microsatellites, and the
EXOpod, Exolaunch’s upgraded cubesat deployer with half a decade of
flight heritage, to flawlessly deploy the customers’ satellites
into the target sun-synchronous orbit above 500 km.
Exolaunch’s customers on the Transporter-2 mission include the following companies:
video © SpaceX
images © 2021 SpaceX, EXOLAUNCH