SpaceX Falcon 9 launches third rideshare mission and lands booster at LZ-1
14. 1. 2022On January 13, 2022, SpaceX launched its second orbital launch of the year. Transporter-3 which is the third dedicated rideshare mission operated by SpaceX launched from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Booster 1058 supporting this mission launched on its tenth flight, previously supporting the Demo-2, ANASIS-II telecommunications satellite, CRS-21, Transporter-1, and five Starlink missions. It performed a boostback burn shortly after stage separation to change its trajectory back to Cape Canaveral. After entry, the booster landed successfully which marked the first RTLS landing of 2022 and the tenth landing for this particular booster.
With missions such as the transporter-3 mission which carried 105 spacecraft, SpaceX aims to enable inexpensive and frequent access to popular orbits. It costs as low as $1 million for a 200-kilogram payload headed to a Sun-synchronous orbit which is at an altitude between 600 to 800 km.
The most notable customer was Planet Inc. which flew 44 SuperDove spacecraft. Kepler Communication launched six of its communication satellites, Spaceflight Inc. integrated payloads for Capella Space and Umbra Space.
D-Orbit Italy-based launch integration company launched five small CubeSats – three for SatRevolution from Poland, Aistech Space, and Czech Aerospace Research Center (VZLU) in partnership with Spacemanic. The VZLUSAT-2 satellite aims to verify technologies for a possible future Czech satellite constellation. German launch services company Exolaunch is also launching payloads for various companies and organizations.
The United Arab Emirates launched DEWASAT-1, developed by DEWA (Dubai’s Electricity and Water Authority).
Although the identity of every single satellite has not been confirmed, we know other payloads are a pair of satellites by ISILaunch, two micro satellites for ICEYE, and multiple payloads from Spire.
