Session
Session 2: Next on the Pad
Abstract
In 2015 Spaceflight initiated a dramatic new vision: buy a full Falcon 9 and fill it totally with Rideshare spacecraft. There was to be no ‘prime’ satellite. There was the potential for ‘co-lead’ status for a couple of customers, but otherwise it was an egalitarian mission. This mission was dubbed SSO-A for ‘Sun Synchronous Orbit – A” with “A” standing for the first of a planned series of such launches. The integration of the spacecraft onto the Integrated Payload Stack (IPS) will likely be occurring during or soon after the SmallSat conference. The subsystems have been designed to deploy 80+ spacecraft, ranging from 0.25U CubeSats to 300+ kg MicroSats. They will be deployed from three different free-flying structures: an Upper Free Flyer (UFF), a Lower Free Flyer (LFF), and the Falcon 9 upper stage. In addition to the Falcon 9 avionics, the separation commands will come from two independent sets of avionics on the UFF and LFF. The major challenge of this effort has been the ‘herding of the cats’ to get dozens of spacecraft prepared for one launch. The experience of coordinating such a complex mission has resulted in new approaches to streamlining mission integration processes – necessity is the mother of invention!
SSO-A: The First Large Commercial Dedicated Rideshare Mission
In 2015 Spaceflight initiated a dramatic new vision: buy a full Falcon 9 and fill it totally with Rideshare spacecraft. There was to be no ‘prime’ satellite. There was the potential for ‘co-lead’ status for a couple of customers, but otherwise it was an egalitarian mission. This mission was dubbed SSO-A for ‘Sun Synchronous Orbit – A” with “A” standing for the first of a planned series of such launches. The integration of the spacecraft onto the Integrated Payload Stack (IPS) will likely be occurring during or soon after the SmallSat conference. The subsystems have been designed to deploy 80+ spacecraft, ranging from 0.25U CubeSats to 300+ kg MicroSats. They will be deployed from three different free-flying structures: an Upper Free Flyer (UFF), a Lower Free Flyer (LFF), and the Falcon 9 upper stage. In addition to the Falcon 9 avionics, the separation commands will come from two independent sets of avionics on the UFF and LFF. The major challenge of this effort has been the ‘herding of the cats’ to get dozens of spacecraft prepared for one launch. The experience of coordinating such a complex mission has resulted in new approaches to streamlining mission integration processes – necessity is the mother of invention!
