In its third dedicated rideshare mission with SpaceX, Exolaunch,
the leading global provider of launch, in-space logistics and
deployment services, integrated and launched 29 small satellites
from customers across the globe. The company’s rideshare clusters
aboard the SpaceX Transporter-3 mission were an amalgamation of
microsats, cubesats (up to 16U) and PocketQubes. The combination
of customers from 17 countries across four continents, and an
unprecedented number of very sophisticated payloads made it the
most technologically rich and geographically spread integration
effort for the company yet.
Exolaunch’s rideshare customers’ payloads have top-notch
technologies, including Internet of Things (IoT), Maritime
Surveillance, Ultra HD Video Streaming, Synthetic-Aperture Radar
(SAR) Earth Observation, and Science and Education.
The eclectic company medley incorporated returning customers
such as NanoAvionics and ICEYE, as well as many notable new
customers such as Sen, Unseenlabs, Lunasonde, NuSpace, FOSSA
Systems and Alba Orbital. The companies behind this plethora of
satellites are based in the USA, Finland, Great Britain, France,
Lithuania, Spain, Scotland, Singapore, Argentina, Brazil,
Germany, Israel, Nepal, the Netherlands, Norway, Turkey, and the
UAE.
The launch of these 29 satellites brought the total number of
satellites sent into orbit by Exolaunch close to two hundred.
This mission was also the third in a series of rideshare
launches, which Exolaunch is manifesting on Falcon 9 as part of
a Multi-Launch Agreement, which the company first signed with
SpaceX in 2020 and extended at the end of 2021. For every Falcon
9 launch procured through this agreement, Exolaunch provides an
end-to-end solution encompassing comprehensive rideshare mission
management, satellite integration, and deployment services.
Exolaunch has launched 59 satellites weighing nearly 1,500 kg on
SpaceX’s first two record-breaking dedicated rideshare
Transporter missions in 2021.
To maximize payload capacity and cost-effectiveness for their
customers, Exolaunch used its recent product addition, EXOport,
a flexible multi-satellite adapter designed to optimally
accommodate microsats and cubesats on a single Falcon 9 port.
Exolaunch also used its proprietary flight-proven separation
systems CarboNIX, a next generation shock-free separation
system, that to date has successfully separated 24 microsats,
and the EXOpod, Exolaunch’s upgraded deployer with a heritage of
139 deployed cubesats. Together they allow Exolaunch to
flawlessly deploy its customers’ satellites into their target
orbits.
Exolaunch has manifested the following satellites on the
Transporter-3 mission:
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2 x ICEYE satellites
Two more satellites of an advanced radar imaging satellite
constellation built and operated by ICEYE. ICEYE’s
constellation represents the world's first small SAR
satellite constellation and the largest fleet of SAR
satellites in the world. ICEYE’s SAR satellite constellation
provides different angle imaging multiple times a day for
specified areas of interest. It is constantly growing and
will provide previously unavailable imaging capabilities and
access, allowing quick tactical acquisitions as well as very
frequent global revisit rates.
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1 x Sen satellite
Sen’s ETV-A1 Earth Observation satellite aims to livestream
multiple perspectives of Earth with Ultra-High-Definition
(UHD) video. The satellite can stream UHD video in real-time
or record videos and downlink them during ground station
passes. The satellite bus was built by NanoAvionics.
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1 x satellite of The Norwegian University of Science and
Technology
HYPSO-1 is a satellite by the Norwegian University of
Science and Technology designed as a research project with a
hyperspectral imager. The satellite bus was built by
NanoAvionics.
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1 x Unseenlabs satellite
BRO-5 is Unseenlabs’ 5th satellite aimed at improving the
capabilities of the French company’s Maritime Surveillance
constellation of 25 satellites.
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1 x DEWA satellite
DEWA-SAT 1 is the first satellite by the Dubai Electricity &
Water Authority (DEWA) carrying a Software Defined Radio
payload designed to receive LoRa (long range) protocol
messages. The satellite bus was built by NanoAvionics.
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1 x Lunasonde satellite
Gossamer Piccolomini is part of the Gossamer constellation
aimed at pioneering subsurface imaging while providing a
sustainable approach to resource exploration.
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1 x NuSpace satellite
NuX-1 is a Singaporean tech demo satellite designed and
built by NuSpace to provide IoT connectivity to areas with
limited to non-existent communications infrastructure thanks
to the incorporated IoT LoRaWAN (long range wide area
network) payload.
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13 x Alba Orbital satellites
The largest PocketQube deployment in history with satellites
manifested from a total of eight different countries.
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DELFI-PQ: Satellite by
the Delft University of Technology, Aerospace
Engineering Faculty, for education and research.
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EASAT-2 and
HADES: Satellites by
AMSAT EA (Spain's national amateur radio society) with
the purpose of conducting an amateur radio communication
experiment.
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5 x UNICORNs:
Satellites by Alba Orbital designed for: UNICORN-1: Tech
demonstration of a new UHF radio system, UNICORN-2A:
Earth Observation and UNICORN – 2D: commercial Earth
Observation, UNICORN-2E: Commercial Earth Observation
and UNICORN-2TA1: Orbital edge computing demonstrator
satellite.
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2 x SATLLA: Two
educational satellites by the Israeli Ariel University
designed for: SATLLA-2A: testing the concepts of Free
Space Optical Communication and SATLLA-2B: introducing
students to the “NewSpace” frontier with hands-on
practice
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GRIZU-263A: A satellite
developed for educational and technology demonstration
of a passive magnetic control subsystem by Turkey's
Grizu-263 Space Team.
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PION-BR1: A satellite by
Brazilian company PION Labs Engenharia Ltda. designed
for an IoT technology demonstration.
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MDQUBESAT-1: A satellite
by Innova Space (Argentina) designed for an IoT
technology demonstration.
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8 x FOSSA Systems satellites
Eight FOSSA PocketQube customer satellites, six of which
will be using FOSSASat-2E’s high performance picosatellite
platform.
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6 x FOSSASAT satellites:
FOSSASAT-2E1 / WISESAT-1, FOSSASAT-2E2 / WISESAT-2,
FOSSASAT-2E3 / PILOT-1, FOSSASAT-2E4 / LAIKA,
FOSSASAT-2E5 / MSRSAT-1 and FOSSASAT-2E6 are designed
for the IoT Message Repeater and Platform Demonstrator.
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CHALLENGER: A satellite
by Mini-Cubes (USA), CHALLENGER is designed to serve as
an experimental demonstrator of a windform structure,
and carries Earth Observation payload.
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SANOSAT-1: SANOSAT-1: An
experimental amateur satellite by ORION Space (Nepal)
designed for passive based attitude control and a
radiometer.