spacetoday.net: SpaceX launches more than 100 smallsats on rideshare mission

Posted: Sat, Aug 24, 2024, 12:05 PM ET (1605 GMT)
SpaceX launched more than 100 smallsats on its latest rideshare mission Aug. 16. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 2:56 pm EDT (1856 GMT) from Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Transporter-11 dedicated rideshare mission. On board the rocket were 116 payloads deployed into sun-synchronous orbits. The payloads included satellites from several constellation operators as well as two NASA technology demonstration smallsats and Earth observation satellites from ESA. The U.K. military also had its first high-resolution imaging satellite on the launch that is intended to be a pathfinder for a proposed constellation. SpaceX has now launched more than 1,000 satellites through its rideshare program.