SpaceX to Kick off 2023 Launch Campaign with Transporter Rideshare Mission on Tuesday
SpaceX will kick off its 2023 campaign on Tuesday by launching 114 satellites on its Transporter-6 rideshare mission. The Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to liftoff at 9:56 a.m. EST (14:56 UTC) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Transporter 6 — Top Payloads
| Company/Agency | Payloads | Purpose | Number |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planet Labs | SuperDove | Earth observation | 36 |
| Swarm Technologies (SpaceX owned) | SpaceBEE | Communications | 12 |
| Skykraft | Skykraft | Air traffic management | 6* |
| Spire Global | Lemur-2 | Meteorology, ship & aircraft tracking | 6 |
| DARPA+ | Blackjack | Reconnaissance | 4 |
| Astrocast | Astrocast | Internet of Things | 4 |
| Sen | EarthTV | Earth observation – UHD streaming | 4 |
| Kleos Space | KSF3 | Navigation | 4 |
| ICEYE | ICEYE | Earth observation | 3 |
| Albania government/Satellogic | Albania-1, -2 | Earth observation | 2 |
| D-Orbit | ION SCV-007, -008 | CubeSat deployer | 2 |
| Lynk Global | Lynk Tower 3, 4 | Communications | 2 |
| Royal NLR++/TNO^/FFI** | MilSpace-2 1, -2 2 | Tech demo | 2 |
| Satellogic | ÑuSat 34, 35 | Earth observation | 2 |
| Umbra Lab | Umbra-05, -06 | Earth observation | 2 |
| Total | 90 |
*5 satellites and Skykraft satellite deployer
++Royal Netherlands Space Centre
^Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research
**Norwegian Defence Research Establishment
SpaceX has launched 436 payloads on five previous Transporter missions. Like on the upcoming launch, all satellites have been placed in sun-synchronous orbits. (See Who Launched What on SpaceX’s Five Transporter Missions.)
SpaceX launched 61 times without a failure in 2022. Elon Musk has said the company is aiming for 100 launches this year. At least one launch will be the Starship/Super Heavy flight test from south Texas.
Scheduled Orbital Launches
Jan. 2-9, 2022
| Date | Launcher – Organization | Payload – Organization | Purpose(s) | Launch Site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan. 3 | Falcon 9 – SpaceX | 114 satellites – multiple | Multiple | Cape Canaveral |
| Jan. 8 | Falcon 9 – SpaceX | 40 OneWeb – OneWeb | Broadband | Kennedy |
| Jan. 9 | Long March 7A – CASC | Shijian 23 – CAST | Tech demo | Wenchang |
| Jan. 9-13 | RS1 – ABL Space | VariSat-1A, 1B – VariSat | Communications | PSC – Alaska |
On Jan. 8, a Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch 40 OneWeb broadband satellites from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It’s the second of three launches OneWeb booked with SpaceX after the company’s contract to launch on Soyuz rockets in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February.
ABL Space will attempt to launch its RS1 rocket on its maiden flight from the Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska after multiple unsuccessful attempts last year. The launch window is open from Jan. 9-13.
A Chinese Long March 7A is scheduled to launch the Shijian 23 technology demonstration satellite aboard a Long March 7A on Jan. 9.
One response to “SpaceX to Kick off 2023 Launch Campaign with Transporter Rideshare Mission on Tuesday”
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Civilization faces a number of far more near-term and urgent threats than Climate Change[tm]. The soonest and most significant will be food insecurity and perhaps even famine in a number of places owing to disruptions to the world’s food and fertilizer production infrastructure because of the Russo-Ukraine War.
I don’t expect starving millions to be of much concern to climate wowsers such as yourself because you have been similarly indifferent to the tens of millions who have died of preventable malaria in the half-century since the very unwise DDT ban.