SpaceX to launch Transporter-13 rideshare from Vandenberg

Date:
Fri, 14 Mar 2025 18:55:30 +0000

Description:
SpaceX will launch the Transporter-13 rideshare mission on Friday, March 14, during a 17-minute launch The post SpaceX to launch Transporter-13 rideshare from Vandenberg appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

FULL STORY ======================================================================

SpaceX will launch the Transporter-13 rideshare mission on Friday, March 14, during a 17-minute launch window opening at 11:39 PM PDT (06:39 UTC on March 15) from SLC-4E at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Following launch, Falcon 9 will deploy more than 60 satellites into a Sun-synchronous orbit. The Falcon booster supporting this mission will return to land at
LZ-4. If needed, there is a backup launch opportunity on Saturday, March 15, at the same time.



Deployment of payloads from the second stage to Sun-synchronous orbits (SSO) at altitudes of approximately 510 km and 590 km will begin approximately an hour after launch. There will be 47 payload separation events from Falcon 9 releasing 54 spacecraft, one of which is an orbital transfer vehicle (OTV) carrying 11 additional satellites for later deployment. SpaceX lists the
total number of payloads for Transporter-13 as 74, which includes some hosted payloads and a reentry capsule. See Also Transporter-13 Updates SpaceX Missions Section L2 SpaceX Section Click here to Join L2

The booster supporting this flight is B1081, flying for the 13th time on Transporter-13. B1081 previously launched Crew-7, CRS-29, PACE, Transporter-10, EarthCARE, NROL-186, and six Starlink missions. After stage separation, the booster will return to land at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4), located just west of Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E). Support ship GO Beyond will recover the payload fairing halves downrange in the Pacific Ocean.

The stage will conduct two burns to reach the first deployment orbit, with 32 payloads separating from T+54 minutes to T+67 minutes after launch. After a 35-minute coast phase, the second stage will conduct another very short burn to raise its apogee, followed by a 32-minute coast and another short burn to raise the vehicles perigee. Deployment of the second set of 22 payloads will occur from T+137 minutes to T+143 minutes into the mission. This will be followed by one more relight of the second stage to put it on a deorbit trajectory.

If Crew-10 launches as scheduled from Florida, Transporter-13 will be the
30th Falcon mission of the year for SpaceX. The next SpaceX rideshare
missions on the manifest are Bandwagon-3 to mid-inclination no earlier than April, a flight including NASAs TRACERS spacecraft to SSO in mid-May, and Transporter-14 to SSO in July. Transporter-13 payload stack, annotated by @GewoonLukas_. (Credit: SpaceX)

Transporter-13 payloads overview

This is SpaceXs 13th dedicated rideshare mission to SSO. Its payloads range
in size from picosatellites of less than a kilogram that are only a few centimeters on a side, to a satellite massing more than half a tonne.

Rideshare integrators handling payloads on this flight include Exolaunch, ISILaunch, SEOPS, Maverick Space, and D-Orbit. While most of the payloads
will be released directly from the launch vehicle, an OTV from D-Orbit will release more spacecraft to SSO following deployment from Falcon 9.

Exolaunch is supporting the deployment of 27 satellites from 10 countries using nine of its ExoPod CubeSat deployers, Carbonix separation rings, and
the new Quadro four-point separation system. https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Quadro_1.mp4

Caption: Exolaunch will debut its new four-point separation system, Quadro, on Transporter-13. (Credit: Exolaunch)

SEOPS, Maverick Space Systems, and ISISPACE partnered to support 23
spacecraft from five countries for this mission. ISISPACE is carrying 11, including nine educational CubeSats. Maverick is launching seven, including two microsatellites and five 6U CubeSats. SEOPS has the rest, with OrCa2b, RAPSat-1, and BMM part of the 2024-Blaze contract that Space Systems Command awarded SEOPS. Integration into SEOPS and ISISPACE deployers was completed at Mavericks facilities in San Luis Obispo, with SEOPS handling launch site integration.

The sizes for the CubeSats launching on Transporter-13 are 10 cm cubes, with
a 6U CubeSat being approximately 30 x 20 x 10 cm. Sizes for PocketQubes are given in 5 cm cubes, with a 1.5P PocketQube being approximately 7.5 x 5 x 5 cm.

In the Cake Topper position atop the payload stack is a dual-payload adapter holding two high-resolution electro-optical imaging satellites from Albedo Space and Satrec Initiative. Render and photograph of Albedos Clarity-1 satellite. (Credit: Albedo Space)

Albedo Space is providing Clarity-1, a 530 kg electro-optical Earth observation satellite designed to operate in very low-Earth orbit (VLEO). Operating from an altitude of 320 km, the company aims to achieve 10 cm panchromatic and 2 m thermal infrared resolutions.

South Koreas Satrec Initiatives SpaceEye-T is an approximately 700 kg
optical Earth observation satellite providing 0.3 m panchromatic and 1.2 m multispectral resolution with a 14 km swath width. In partnership with Earth Fire Alliance, Muon Space is providing FireSat0/MuSat-4 a 130kg satellite with an infrared imager to detect wildfires and other intense infrared emission sources on Earth. Furthermore, the satellite will carry Muons GNSS reflectometry payload for measuring soil moisture, ice coverage, and ocean wind speeds.

Loft Orbitals YAM-8 microsatellite will launch with several payloads, including a hyperspectral imager from Wyvern. This is Lofts first use of the Longbow satellite bus from Airbus. Diagram of DROID.002s external features from an FCC filing. (Credit: Turion Space)

DROID.002 is a 90kg spacecraft for space situational awareness from Turion Space. The satellite carries two cameras from HEO, including the new Adler model with twice the aperture size of the Holmes imager and the ability to capture up to 100 frames per second.

Botswanas first satellite, the BOTSAT-1 3U CubeSat from the Botswana International University of Science and Technology, features a medium-resolution imaging payload.

ICEYE has four 90 kg synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites, X-46/-48/-50/-51, flying on Transporter-13. These join three dozen already in orbit, with 13 launched on four other missions since March 2024. DSAR-TD/Etihad-SAT is a 220kg SAR satellite from UAEs Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre and South Koreas Satrec Initiative.

Spanish firm Startical is flying IOD-1, a 16U CubeSat that will demonstrate ADS-B and VHF communications payloads for a future air traffic management constellation. ARVAKER 1 satellite. (Credit: Kongsberg)

Norways Kongsberg is providing ARVAKER 1, the first of three microsatellites in its N3X constellation to monitor maritime traffic, with AIS and navigational radar detection payloads.

Sidus Space is launching the LizzieSat-3 microsatellite just over a year after its first LizzieSat satellite. LizzieSat-3 payloads include AIS reception, Earth imaging, and HEOs Holmes imager for non-Earth imaging (NEI).

Varda is flying W-3/Pioneer-03, the third in its series of spacecraft with reentry capsules for research on pharmaceutical manufacturing and hypersonic reentry testing. Vardas W2, launched on Transporter-12 in January, landed on Feb. 28 at Australias Koonibba Test Range.

Spire will have seven of its LEMUR 2 satellites on Transporter-13. Two will have optical inter-satellite links (OISL), following a successful demonstration of the technology with spacecraft launched on Transporter-8 in 2023. One 6U spacecraft, developed in partnership with Wingbits, will focus
on aviation. Sentinel, also 6U, will carry additional payloads, such as a
star tracker for precision pointing and a grayscale imager for coarse resolution Earth imaging. The imagery will be used to test a software algorithm for future satellite defense applications.

Tomorrow-S5 & -S6, developed by Tomorrow.io, are two 6U spacecraft with microwave sounder instruments to take atmospheric measurements. Another pair of these satellites were recently launched on the Bandwagon 2 mission in December. NASAs EZIE mission. (Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben)

NASAs Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) mission is a trio of 6U CubeSats that will measure electrojets, currents in the upper atmosphere related to auroras. The satellites will travel in a line to pass over the
same region within 10 minutes of each other. Instruments on the satellites will measure the microwave emissions from oxygen in the ionosphere under the electrojets, looking for the Zeeman effect that causes splitting of the detected spectral lines.

Uvsq-Sat NG, a 6U CubeSat from Frances Laboratoire Atmosphres, Observations Spatiales (LATMOS) and the International Satellite Program for Research and Education (INSPIRE), continues the Earth radiation budget measurement mission of earlier satellites Uvsq-Sat and Inspire-Sat, as well as measuring atmospheric gas concentrations.

The HERMES Pathfinder mission, led by the Italian Space Agency and the European Union, consists of six 3U CubeSats with detectors for X-rays and gamma-rays that will be used to detect gamma ray bursts and other transient events throughout the universe.

AeroCube-18 A & B are a pair of 6U CubeSats from Aerospace Corp. that will demonstrate various technologies, including a hyperspectral imaging unit, advanced solar cells, and nanotechnology payloads. Orbital Calibration 2b (OrCa2b), a 12U spacecraft from Georgia Tech, has reflective panels on its exterior that can be used to calibrate ground-based optical sensors and other experimental payloads.

MITRE Corporation is providing the 40 kg M-SEL/Cortez spacecraft, which utilizes an Astro Digital Corvus Micro bus. The satellite will test RF communications in multiple frequency bands with its Frequency-scaled
Ultrawide Spectrum Element (FUSE) antenna technology.

Near Space Launch is flying RAPSat-1, a demonstration of a thin satellite design with three flat satellites joined together for launch in a 6U CubeSat deployer slot, separating after launch into three discrete satellites. Spinnaker dragsail packed onboard the Sphinx spacecraft. (Credit: Vestigo Aerospace)

Astro Digitals Sphinx/Frazier, a 32kg microsatellite, will demonstrate Vestigo Aerospaces Spinnaker 3 dragsail. Spinnaker 3, designed to speed up
the deorbiting of spacecraft massing up to 400 kg, is stowed in a 20 cm cube and deploys an 18.8 square meter sail. Polands Liftero is launching RED5/OrbAstro TR-5, a 6U CubeSat that will demonstrate a 1N nitrous oxide-based propulsion system.

Australias Buccaneer Main Mission (BMM) is a 6U-XL CubeSat built by Inovor for Defence Science Technology Group. BMMs main payload is a high frequency (HF) receiver with a deployable antenna that will be used to calibrate the Jindalee Operational Radar Network. Secondary payloads include optical communications systems and an imager with a deployable mirror that can be rotated.

Rogue Space Systems second satellite, OTP-2, is an 8U CubeSat that will demonstrate systems Rogue is developing for Redezvous and Proximity
Operations (RPO), host payloads for encryption, and feature a novel
propulsion system.

French firm U-Space has two 12U demonstration spacecraft on Transporter 13, SOAP and PANDORE, with SOAP being the first mission fully designed, built,
and operated by the company. Indias HEX20 is launching NILA, a 3U CubeSat
that will test its satellite bus and conduct an in-orbit demonstration of actuators from Dcubed.

The Israel Space Agency and Tel Aviv University are providing TEVEL2, a
group of nine 1U CubeSats built by different groups of high-school students. Each satellite has radiation monitoring and amateur radio payloads. This is a follow-up to the earlier TEVEL mission that launched eight satellites on Transporter-3. JinjuSat-1B and NUSHSat1 being loaded into its Exolaunch deployer. (Credit: SpaceBey/Exolaunch)

South Koreas JINJUSat-1B is a 2U satellite with an imaging payload from
Jinju City, Korea Testing Laboratory, and Gyeongsang National University. The original JINJUSat-1 satellite failed to deploy on the Transporter-9 mission. NUSHSat-1, developed by students at Singapores NUS High School of Mathematics and Science, is a 1U spacecraft with an imaging payload. South Koreas Yongsei University has HYVRID, a 3U CubeSat with a laser detection payload and deployable sheets of thin film forming a 1 m square shape that can be tracked by an optoelectric system on the ground.

D-Orbit is flying ION SCV-017 Marvelous Mathias, another of its space tugs carrying payloads and customer satellites for later deployment. The hosted payloads include propulsion system demonstrations for Arkadia Space and GO-2 and DPhi Spaces ClusterGate1, which will carry its own set of hosted
payloads. A payload for Beyond Burials containing cremated remains is also flying on the satellite. Alongside the HERMES Pathfinder, D-Orbits satellite carries a pair of PocketQube deployers for Alba Orbital, which contains five spacecraft. Albas spacecraft are Unicorn-2O/-2P/-2Q, three more 3P satellites for its nighttime imaging constellation.

HADES-ICM, a 1.5P satellite from AMSAT EA, Hydra Space, and Interstellar Communication has an amateur radio FM repeater. HADES-W, also 1.5P, has a demonstration IoT payload.

Payload information for the flight will be updated as more information
becomes available. Some companies do not provide payload information before the launch. Targeting Friday, March 14 for a Falcon 9 launch of the Transporter-13 mission from Space Launch Complex 4E in California https://t.co/afM5y8nBPg pic.twitter.com/9CFifLfp0G

SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 13, 2025



Notes on previous and upcoming SpaceX rideshare missions.

Transporter-12 launched on Jan. 14. A total of 111 objects associated with
the mission are being tracked in orbit according to Space-Track, with 90 of the payloads identified. The unknown payloads include large payloads such as MBZ-Sat. There is also one unlabeled object at 590 km, presumably NORSAT-4, the only 590 km deployment to not be identified. Only 35 of the 36 Flock 4G SuperDoves have been identified. The expected total is 115 objects once the tugs release all of its passengers.

Bandwagon-2 launched on Dec. 21, 2024. 29 objects from the mission are being tracked on Space-Track, with 16 identified. One of the objects is likely an odd entry, showing a reentry in January but a last known orbit above 500 km. SpaceX stated that 30 payloads were flown on the mission.

NASA is gathering many of its 2025 small satellite missions onto two upcoming SSO rideshare flights: TRACERS in May and TSIS-2 in October. The contracts
for the two missions were granted under the lower-cost Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) program. A few spacecraft have moved from Transporter missions, which may free up a small number of slots on those sold-out flights.

(Lead Image: Transporter-13 payloads. Credit: SpaceX)



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Link to news story:
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2025/03/t13/


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