We couldn’t be prouder of our Sherpa OTV, which debuted in 2021 and has been a real game changer for our customers. We thought this would be a great time to show off some of the photos from Sherpa in space, including what we believe is the first-ever image of a thruster firing in space. … Continued
We’re happy to report we’ve released the first version of our Sherpa Payload User’s Guide, a resource for customers seeking information about how the Sherpa family of Orbital Transfer Vehicles (OTVs) can help deliver their satellites to specific destination orbits while benefiting from the cost effectiveness of rideshare missions. Spaceflight has flown three Sherpa OTVs … Continued
As 2022 gets rolling, we want to take a minute to celebrate a fantastic 2021!
Benchmark Space Systems is a leader in providing cost-effective propulsion systems for smallsat missions: it was a natural fit when we were looking for the most cutting edge propulsion systems for our Sherpa orbital transfer vehicle (OTV) program. Besides a natural fit as far as technical experience, there is a shared outlook and culture that … Continued
Another year is in the books. 2021 was quite a ride, and we’re so proud of our team’s accomplishments during another exciting year. We wanted to reflect on the year and thank all our incredible partners, customers, and employees for everything they do to make us successful. Among the noteworthy accomplishments of the year, the Sherpa-NG program … Continued
We are deep in the preparations for mission SXRS-6! One of our valued customer payloads on board is Umbra-02. Umbra-02 is the second commercial satellite of an initial planned 24 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite constellation for Umbra: the first, Umbra SAR-2001, launched in June 2021 on our SXRS-5 (SpaceX’s Transporter-2) mission. Umbra is making … Continued
We’re closing out 2021 with a flurry of launches. After signing a multi-launch agreement to launch BlackSky satellites at the beginning of the year, Spaceflight supported three successive launches for the provider of real-time geospatial intelligence in the past 30 days: . RL-8: On November 18 (UTC), Spaceflight managed a dedicated launch for two BlackSky … Continued
We hit another critical/important milestone as we prepare for our next mission with our latest generation Sherpa-OTV, Sherpa LTC. We conducted testing on the primary Sherpa structure, the Configurable Annex Base (CAB), putting it through environmental testing to clear its use for flight on SpaceX’s Transporter-3 no earlier than January 2022. The completion of this … Continued
When our customers talk, we listen. We listened in 2020 when we launched our online customer mission management tool, Mission Control. It was the culmination of years of helping customers manage the myriad of tasks and deliverables associated with launching a spacecraft. As you can imagine, sending email attachments and communicating deadlines by email wasn’t … Continued
Today we announced that our team is currently in New Zealand prepping for three consecutive launches for our customer BlackSky with Rocket Lab. We’re calling these launches the “Triple Double” — 3 Electron launches with 2 BlackSky satellites onboard each, launching back-to-back-to-back. That would be a demanding schedule under normal circumstances, but with a global … Continued