SpaceX is planning to launch its Falcon 9 rocket carrying 140 payloads as part of the Transporter-15 mission. The launch is scheduled for 10:44 AM Pacific Time from Vandenberg Space Force Base. An earlier launch attempt was canceled just hours before scheduled liftoff. The Transporter-15 mission marks the 19th in SpaceX’s Smallsat Rideshare program, which offers small satellites a more cost-effective launch solution.
Previously, SpaceX successfully conducted similar launches in January, March, and June, along with the Bandwagon-3 and Bandwagon-4 missions in April and November to low Earth orbit. The Falcon 9 rocket for Transporter-15 will use booster B1071, which has already completed 29 flights. This booster has served in five missions for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, four Rideshare missions (three Transporter and one Bandwagon), and NASA’s SWOT mission (Surface Water and Ocean Topography).
Approximately 8.5 minutes after launch, the B1071 booster will autonomously land on the “Of Course I Still Love You” drone ship. If successful, this will be the 165th landing on this platform and SpaceX’s 540th first-stage landing overall. Deployment of the satellites will begin with the Toro2 satellite slightly more than 54 minutes into the flight and conclude with the NASA R5 (Realizing Rapid, Reduced-cost high-Risk Research) satellite nearly two hours in.
Among the diverse payloads aboard Transporter-15 are satellites from Seops Space and Exolaunch. Seops Space is managing the deployment of 11 satellites, including four Alba Orbital satellites, three C3S satellites, three CubeSats developed with NASA’s support, and SatRev’s PW-6U CubeSat. Exolaunch will deploy 59 satellites, including the T.MicroSat-1 from Tron Future Tech (Taiwan), the SPiN-2 (a CubeSat developed with the European Space Agency’s support), and the Veery-0G Brendan from Care Weather (USA).
At the top of the Transporter-15 stack lies the Formosat-8 satellite from the Taiwan Space Agency (TASA), the first of a planned constellation of eight optical remote sensing satellites. The deployment of Formosat-8 satellites heralds the start of a new remote sensing satellite constellation aimed at collecting valuable Earth data. TASA plans to launch these satellites annually, aiming to complete the constellation by 2031.
With the continued success of missions like Transporter-15, small satellite operators are gaining unprecedented access to space, enabling them to launch at reduced costs. This could significantly bolster innovation within the industry, attracting new companies eager to take advantage of SpaceX’s reliability and cost efficiency. As the demand for satellite-based data grows, particularly in sectors like agriculture, environmental monitoring, and telecommunications, such advancements are essential for driving economic growth and technological progress.
