Mission At-A-Glance:

• Customers: Astrocast, Planet
• Launch Vehicle: PSLV
• Launch Location: India’s Satish Dhawan Space Center
• Total spacecraft: 21

Spaceflight launched 21 spacecraft on a rideshare mission from India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) at India’s Satish Dhawan Space Center on April 1, 2019 Indian Standard Time (Sun., March 31 PDT). Payloads aboard the mission included the Astrocast-02 3U cubesat from Switzerland-based Astrocast and Flock 4a, 20 next-generation Dove satellites from Planet.

This launch represented Spaceflight’s eighth launch on a PSLV and with the completion of this mission, the company has sent 95 spacecraft to orbit aboard PSLVs.

Spaceflight successfully launched the first test satellite of Astrocast’s IoT Nanosatellite Network on its historic SSO-A dedicated rideshare mission in December 2018. Astrocast’s network of 64 cubesats securely extends the reach of two-way communications to the 90 percent of the globe currently not covered by cellular networks. Using L-Band frequencies, Astrocast’s small form factor modules, miniaturized antennas, and optimized data protocol make it the most advanced nanosatellite on the market today.

In Planet’s first launch of 2019, Flock 4a joined its current constellation of more than 100 Doves, replenishing the on-orbit fleet and providing upgrades to its imaging chain to improve image sharpness, radiometric consistency and spectral precision.