Nov. 28 (UPI) — SpaceX on Friday launched 140 payloads, the 19th mission of the Smallsat Rideshare program from California.<\/p>\n
The Falcon 9, with cubesats, microsats, hosted payloads and orbital transfer vehicles, lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base’s Pad 4E at 10:44 a.m. PST. The Transport-15 mission was scrubbed on Wednesday as the oxygen load was supposed to start on the rocket’s upper stage.<\/p>\n
Clients included 36 SuperDove satellites for Planet Labs’ Earth-observation network and satellites for clients like Exolaunch, D-Orbit and NASA.<\/p>\n
Mexico’s Alvaro Obreg\u00f3n Borough sent the first locally assembled microsatellite<\/a> into orbit.<\/p>\n About 8 1\/2 minutes after liftoff, the first-stage booster landed on the drone ship, Of Course I Still Love You, in the Pacific Ocean. This was a record 30th mission for the booster with past ones including five missions for the National Reconnaissance Office, four previous rideshare flights and NASA’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography.<\/p>\n It was the 165th landing on the vessel and the 540th booster landing for Space, including in Florida.<\/p>\n The last ride-share flight was on June<\/a> 23<\/a>.<\/p>\n So far, Falcon 9 has launched 30-plus missions with rideshare payloads, sending more than 1,400 payloads to orbit.<\/p>\n SpaceX, in an information sheet<\/a>, said the cost is as low as $325,000 for up to 120 pounds.<\/p>\n “If your payload is delayed, apply 100% of monies paid toward the cost of rebooking on a future mission, subject to a 5-10% rebooking fee,” SpaceX said.<\/p>\n Missions are planned every four months.<\/p>\n SpaceX’s next Florida flights<\/p>\n SpaceX plans to resume Falcon 9 missions from Florida with flights with 29 Starlink satellites each scheduled for Monday and Tuesday after a 10-day pause during the Thanksgiving holiday week.<\/p>\n The last launch was Nov. 22<\/a> when a Falcon 9 rocket carried 29 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit from Canaveral Space Force Station’s Pad 40 at 2:53 a.m. EST. It was the record 101st mission from Florida’s Space Coast this year.<\/p>\n From Florida, the four-hour window for the next flight is from midnight to 4 a.m. from Pad 39A at Kennedy’s Space Center.<\/p>\n Then Tuesday from 3:16 to 7:16 p.m., a Falcon 9 is scheduled from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.<\/p>\n Another Starlink missions are scheduled the following week: Dec. 7.<\/p>\n On Dec. 9, SpaceX also is planning the third national security launch this year for the Space Force’s Space Systems Command and the National Reconnaissance Office.<\/p>\n