SpaceX Rideshare Payloads : April? 2021 Flight

[gongora]

We know there is a SpaceX rideshare to SSO in February 2021, and it is not listed as a dedicated rideshare flight on their web site.  I'm not certain what the main payload on the flight is.  It could be SARah 1, but there are other possibilities so I'm just going to make this separate thread for the rideshare passengers until we know for sure.

[gongora]

The February flight is the second demo flight for the Momentus Vigoride vehicle, with a model that is larger and more powerful than the one flying in December.

https://momentus.space/2020/08/11/our-work-with-astrogate-labs-and-arca-dynamics

Our service agreement with ARCA is for a 3U satellite, named REVELA, to Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), to be launched in February 2021 on the second Vigoride demo mission. This will also be the flight qualification mission for the 3U deployer by another space Italian company, NPC Spacemind.

[gongora]

[Space News] Lockheed Martin teams with USC and Momentus on cubesat program

The first of the four planned missions is a remote sensing spacecraft. It will be used to test artificial intelligence technology to enable autonomous satellites.

Momentus, a space transportation and logistics startup in Silicon Valley, was hired to provide the launch services. The company has arranged for the 3U cubesat to fly on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare scheduled for February 2021. The cubesat will be mated with a Momentus “transfer vehicle” that, once released from the SpaceX rocket, will take the cubesat to a sun synchronous orbit about 550 kilometers above the Earth’s surface.

[scr00chy]

Other announced Momentus payloads for this launch:

- NuX-1
- IRIS-1
- SPARTAN and QMR-KWT

[scr00chy]

Viasat, which was selected to lead the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Space Vehicles XVI program, is scheduled to deliver the first 50-pound XVI satellite to Vandenberg Air Force Base, California in December ahead of a scheduled launch in the spring of 2021.

https://corpblog.viasat.com/xvi-update/

Sounds like that satellite could be launching on this mission.

[gongora]

Viasat, which was selected to lead the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Space Vehicles XVI program, is scheduled to deliver the first 50-pound XVI satellite to Vandenberg Air Force Base, California in December ahead of a scheduled launch in the spring of 2021.

https://corpblog.viasat.com/xvi-update/

Sounds like that satellite could be launching on this mission.

I didn't see any other obvious candidate flights, unless they're counting on one of the new launchers to be flying by then.

[gongora]

Spaceflight Inc. also has a Sherpa on this flight.

[Space News] Spaceflight planning three Sherpa launches in 2021

The second Sherpa-NG is projected to launch in February on another Falcon 9 rideshare, Bonin said.

[gongora]

[Momentus] Announcing Our Work with LunaSonde

High-resolution subsurface imaging is poised to fundamentally change the way we see our planet and its resources. By using smallsats to essentially take an MRI of the Earth’s surface (revealing more about what is close to the top) the practice is already aiding the mining, petroleum, and water resource industries.

Today, we are excited to share the news that Momentus has a service agreement with LunaSonde to fly a demo Cubesat (Gossamer) to SSO orbit on our Vigoride orbital transfer vehicle in Q1 2021.

Led by the young but distinguished Jeremiah Pate (who as a teen garnered significant recognition in the Science community for his work with Parkinson’s Disease), this team of experts is developing a platform for mapping resources up to 2 kilometers beneath the Earth’s surface, using novel low frequency radar technology.

We welcome LunaSonde onboard!

[gongora]

This may have slipped a couple months.

https://momentus.space/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/FINAL-GP-Advanced-Press-Release.pdf

September 22nd, 2020 – Santa Clara, CA – Momentus Inc. (“Momentus” or the “Company”), a
commercial space company providing in-space satellite transportation and infrastructure
services, and GP Advanced Projects, an Italian startup helping non-space companies to enter
the space sector, today announced a launch service agreement for GP Advanced Projects
FEES2 Picosatellite to fly on Vigoride’s second demo mission in April 2021

FEES is .3U (10x10x3cm)

[Jansen]

https://momentus.space/2020/09/02/fossa/

Two FOSSA PocketPod deployers carrying a total of nine PocketQube spacecraft (16P Total) will be launched in February 2021 on the second Vigoride demo mission onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

[gongora]

Momentus seems to not be on this flight anymore, their latest press release doesn't mention any flights before June.  (It's also possible this flight has been delayed past June.)

[Jansen]

Momentus seems to not be on this flight anymore, their latest press release doesn't mention any flights before June.  (It's also possible this flight has been delayed past June.)

All Momentus Vigoride flights are delayed. The first Vigoride was supposed to be on Transporter-1. Since it won’t be going up until June (at the earliest), the second won’t go up until June at the earliest as well.