Session
Session X: Space Access
Location
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Abstract
Spaceflight’s record-setting SSO-A mission successfully launched 64 customer spacecraft into orbit onboard a Falcon 9 launch vehicle on 3 December 2018. SSO-A is a unique mission because it was a dedicated rideshare mission without a primary spacecraft. All 64 cubesats and microsats shared a ride together to orbit. The diverse number of organizations represented on this mission were all at different levels of maturity for their spacecraft, and this resulted in numerous mission design revisions to SSO-A as the customer manifest changed significantly over the course of the mission. Spaceflight created a flexible hardware architecture, analytical tools to rapidly update mission analyses, strict configuration change control, and quality processes to facilitate these changes and ensure mission success.
Behind the US's Largest Rideshare Launch: Spaceflight's SSO-A
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Spaceflight’s record-setting SSO-A mission successfully launched 64 customer spacecraft into orbit onboard a Falcon 9 launch vehicle on 3 December 2018. SSO-A is a unique mission because it was a dedicated rideshare mission without a primary spacecraft. All 64 cubesats and microsats shared a ride together to orbit. The diverse number of organizations represented on this mission were all at different levels of maturity for their spacecraft, and this resulted in numerous mission design revisions to SSO-A as the customer manifest changed significantly over the course of the mission. Spaceflight created a flexible hardware architecture, analytical tools to rapidly update mission analyses, strict configuration change control, and quality processes to facilitate these changes and ensure mission success.
