WASHINGTON \u2014 A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched a trio of NASA astrophysics small satellites along with dozens of commercial spacecraft on a rideshare mission Jan. 11.<\/p>\n
The Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 8:44 a.m. Eastern on a mission SpaceX dubbed \u201cTwilight.\u201d The 40 spacecraft aboard began deployment 61 minutes after liftoff, with deployments concluding more than 90 minutes later.<\/p>\n
Twilight is part of SpaceX\u2019s broader rideshare program but falls outside its two main mission lines: Transporter launches to sun-synchronous orbit and Bandwagon flights to mid-inclination orbits. On this mission, payloads were deployed into dusk-dawn sun-synchronous orbits.<\/p>\n
The mission primarily carried commercial satellites, including 10 optical data relay network satellites for Kepler Communications and nine Lemur satellites for Spire. Other companies with payloads on the launch included Internet of Things company Plan-S, radio frequency intelligence company Hawkeye 360, and radar imaging companies Capella Space, Iceye and Umbra.<\/p>\n
Also aboard were three NASA astrophysics missions, including two cubesats. One, the Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat (SPARCS), is a 6U cubesat built by the University of Arizona to study 20 K- and M-class stars at ultraviolet wavelengths, measuring stellar flares and other activity that could affect the habitability of orbiting planets.<\/p>\n
The other cubesat, the Black Hole Coded Aperture Telescope, or BlackCAT, is a 6U spacecraft developed at Penn State University. It will observe X-ray flares from supermassive black holes at the centers of active galaxies as well as gamma-ray bursts. Both SPARCS and BlackCAT were funded through NASA astrophysics research and analysis programs.<\/p>\n
The third NASA mission, Pandora, is part of the agency\u2019s Astrophysics Pioneers program for small satellite and balloon-based missions, with cost caps of $20 million. The 325-kilogram Pandora spacecraft carries a 45-centimeter telescope to study exoplanet atmospheres by observing planetary transits, when exopanets pass in front of their host stars.<\/p>\n
Pandora, led by NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center, is the second mission from the Pioneers program to launch. The first, the Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations, or PUEO, is a balloon mission launched over Antarctica in December to study high-energy particles as they interact with or reflect off Antarctic ice.<\/p>\n