Posted: Sat, Apr 22, 2023, 11:04 AM ET (1504 GMT)
SpaceX launched more than 50 smallsats early April 15 on its latest rideshare mission. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 2:48 am EST (0648 GMT) from Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Transporter-7 mission after several days of delays. The rocket carried 51 payloads that were deployed into low Earth orbit over the next two and a half hours. The payloads ranged from an 800-kilogram Turkish imaging satellite to student cubesats. Among the payloads was the first satellite for TrustPoint Inc., a startup developing a cubesat-based global navigation satellite system. The company will use the satellite for testing, calibration and optimization of its payload technology that the company hopes to ultimately fly as a constellation that could backup GPS.

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