A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket amplified a record 143 small satellites in polar orbit on Sunday in the company’s first dedicated “rideshare” mission, a response to growing demand for space access by less traditional companies and institutions.
The Transporter 1 mission also served as a reminder of the ongoing debate about the role the government should play in regulating the increasingly crowded low-earth orbit area where collisions occur. it would create high-speed shrapnel that threatens other spaceships.
“There are no universally accepted ‘road rules’ for the safety of space operations, much less a regulatory regime for active risk management and collision avoidance,” NASA’s Aerospace Security Advisory Committee wrote in its recently released 2020 report.
“As the potential for orbital collisions increases with increasing congestion, it is important to recognize that the risks to astronauts, critical national security capabilities and global space trade are also increasing.”
William Harwood / CBS News
Running a day late due to inclement weather, the Transporter 1 mission began with an earthquake at 10 a.m. ET, while Falcon 9 moved away from Cape Canaveral and soared on a rare southeast trajectory to a 326-mile high orbit in around the poles of the Earth.
After propelling the rocket out of the lower atmosphere, the first stage, making the fifth flight, fell and flew to a landing on a drone ship off the coast southeast of Miami. It was the 73rd successful recovery of the SpaceX booster and the 51st at sea.
The 143 satellites on the second stage were the most ever launched by a single rocket, eclipsing the previous mark of 104 satellites set by India Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle in February 2017.
“Excited to offer low-cost orbit access for small businesses!” SpaceX founder Elon Musk wrote on Twitter on Friday.
SpaceX charges a relatively small million dollars to launch a 440-pound satellite and $ 5,000 for every 2.2 pounds above the base level. The company says Transporter missions will be conducted every four months or so as needed.
Sunday’s flight featured a smorgasbord of CubeSats, nanosats and other small spacecraft provided by several companies and institutions.
The manifesto included 10 of SpaceX’s Starlink Internet relay stations, pushing the total launched so far to 1,025, 48 Earth SuperDove image satellites built on the planet and a variety of “small” ones for commercial applications, technology development, scientific research. and education.
The Celestis memorial space flight company sent the cremation in small containers, representing 114 “participants”, including ashes from the late CBS News Radio correspondent Dave Barrett, a lifelong space enthusiast.
Rideshare flights are a recent commercial innovation, providing companies and institutions with relatively fast and accessible access to space that they might not otherwise be able to provide.
Exolaunch
But critics worry that the rapidly growing number of satellites, in the absence of government regulation and control, will result in an increased threat of potentially catastrophic collisions.
The aerospace safety advisory group called space debris a “major safety issue” and “dominant contribution to crew prediction loss calculations” for the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Boeing Starliner and Lockheed Martin’s deep Orion space capsule.
Space debris also contributes to two of the top three risks facing the International Space Station.
“The danger persists and continues to grow exponentially,” the report said. “Space is getting more and more crowded. For example, CubeSats and other small satellites are being launched with increasing frequency, and more companies are now deploying mega-constellations with hundreds or even thousands of satellites.”
The US space force provides satellite tracking, but it is becoming increasingly difficult and there is no regulatory framework governing active risk management and collision avoidance.
“Given the recent growth of non-traditional commercial space operations, including satellite service, space tourism and the deployment of large numbers of satellites to provide global Internet access, updates to existing roles and responsibilities may be appropriate,” he said ASAP.
“As things stand today, there are no clear lines of authority to direct coherence between the many entities operating in space.”