SpaceX Launches Passenger Sharing Mission With 140 Charges

SpaceX launched a rideshare mission with Falcon 9 (photo: dock. SpaceX)

JAKARTA SpaceX launched a rideshare mission or ride-sharing on November 28. This mission called Transporter-15 managed to take off with 140 payloads from various space agencies.

In launching this mission, the company owned by Elon Musk used a Falcon 9 rocket. The rocket launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at around 13:44 Eastern Time.

After the Falcon 9 was launched, the rocket began deploying the payload about 55 minutes after takeoff. The deployment of the payload took a long time and the last payload was released nearly 2 hours 45 minutes after launch.

The launch, which includes 140 payloads, shows high demand for SpaceX ride-sharing services. This service manages to maintain old customers and attracts many new subscribers.

The planet is the largest single satellite operator on this flight. The company left 36 Dove cubesats and two Pelican high-resolution imaging satellites. Meanwhile, Spire flew 11 satellites, including satellites for the weather constellation and ship tracking.

The mission also carries an important satellite for the benefit of the European government, namely eight satellites for IRIDE, an Italian-owned imaging constellation. Finnish company called Iceye also flew satellites for the governments of Greece and Poland.

Among these charges, there are two HydroGNSS satellites for the European Space Agency (ESA). This is the first mission in the ESA Scout program to focus on Earth's low-cost observation satellites to study water cycles using navigation satellite signals.

Transporter-15 also carries several unique payloads such as Mauve, a commercial astronomical satellite developed by Blue Skies Space. This satellite carries a small ultraviolet telescope to study the flares of young stars and stars that are the residences of exoplanets.

Another unique payload is three CTC-1 satellites created by Space Telecommunications Inc. This satellite will be used to test Spacecoin, a communication protocol that uses blockchain technology.