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SpaceX, the popular company of Elon Musk has made an official announcement regarding a ride-sharing program for launching small satellites. The newly launched service offers small satellite operators that come with regularly scheduled, dedicated Falcon 9 rideshare missions. The price of such rides will be made available starting from $2.25 million for each mission.
As per the latest report, SpaceX has decided to offer Falcon 9 rocket mission to small satellites that actually doesn’t have a primary satellite. According to the report, ‘The small satellites will ride into space attached to ports on a payload deployer, a metallic tube mounted on top of the rocket.’
As it’s a huge satellite, a port on the top attached to the top of the deployer that will be suitable to it. The report then says, ‘SpaceX is offering rides out of California to a type of orbit known as Sun-synchronous orbit – a low path above Earth that syncs with the timing of the Sun.’
The company helps different firms to send their satellites into the orbit through their ride-sharing service. SpaceX has launched the new service quite similar to the Uber service for satellites. They have planned to set up a series of regular, scheduled Falcon 9 launches sans the help of any primary satellite or payload. Instead, they carry a series of small satellites weighing 150 kg to 300 kg.
As of now, SpaceX only offers rides from California into a Sun-synchronous orbit. However, they will surely expand their offerings in the forthcoming future. Moreover, it is truly affordable for companies. For the satellite weighing 150 kg, the initial cost of it is $2.25 million. For the 300 kg satellite, the cost is $4.5 million.
Some other companies demand a lot for small satellite launches. Usually, they price $5 million to $6 million per flight. The company has already commenced the initial time for the ride-share missions. It will launch the first Falcon 9 between November 2020 and March 2021. Later, they will start the 2nd and 3rd flights in the early 2022 and 2023 respectively.
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