Launch Date: June 13 Launch Window: 5:21 AM EDT, 2:21 AM PDT, 0921-UTC (one hour launch window) Launch site: SLC-40 Core Booster Recovery: ASDS Booster: B1059.3 Fairings: Reused from Starlink 2 and JCSat 18 Mass: 58 satellites at 260 kg each - 15,600 kg (33,480 lbs) - 3 Skysat-C's are 792 lbs. Orbit: LEO A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is expected to launch the ninth batch of approximately 58 satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink broadband network, a mission designated Starlink 8. Three SkySat Earth-imaging satellites for Planet will launch as rideshare payloads on this mission. SkySat - Wikipedia
I am interested to see if they can pack 60 Starlink sats AND those other 3 sats into the fairing space or will they launch fewer Starlink sats?
It will be additional payload. They are part of the rideshare program. Planet reserves rideshare slots on SpaceX Starlink launches – Spaceflight Now SpaceX sweetens the deal for satellite rideshare launches, and Starlink is in on it You can see the list of launches available at SpaceX Satellite Rideshare .
That's crazy - online ordering for a launch slot on a rocket. All that's missing is a page for providing credit card info
That is crazy, thanks for the link! Where is the add to cart button? Looks like you can launch 50 Kgs into space for about $1million. No idea why i picked that number but it's still next-gen that you can put stuff on space about a easy as buying a new hat off Amazon.
If you're interested, be sure to read the User's Guide. https://storage.googleapis.com/rideshare-static/Rideshare_Payload_Users_Guide.pdf You obviously didn't try selecting a ride.
PS I didn't fill in the payment form. The $1.3M price I got to included some options. Yes, it has optional packages. The adapters are a bit more expensive than for a UMC.
Options packages are important. So that people that want a Cadillac ride to show how important they are, can do that. Or maybe that's to customize the ride it'll do what they want. Either way, options are important. Any bets on margin for those options? (/silly)
The adapter is just an aluminum reducer to go form industry standard 15/24 on the starlink adapter to other [less common] industry standard sizes. $15k is probably pretty close to recurring + some amortized NRE, unless they're building a bunch of adapters up front in which case they'll leverage the typical volume benefit found in most industries and especially machining. 15" sep systems are on the order of ~$50-150k (spaceX lists $280k) so even with development and execution that seems like pretty hefty margin. Everyone needs a sep system so this is probably just an alternative to BYOSS. The Fuel option is really just an extra day of schedule and ostensibly assumes low volatility propellant since they specifically identify SCAPE as an extra charge. That's a bit of a racket there as it won't cost $35k to keep the spaceX team onsite for another day. There's plenty of work to do, so other than a slight scheduling inconvenience the major impact is just another day of expenses for the transient folks that don't live in Florida. Electrical connectivity is mostly just a matter of running a couple more wires to the sats (there would already be a wire harness there for the sep systems) which is basically free, and probably just part of a stock wire harness. The "ask for pricing" part is probably a function of how much and what kind of interaction the customer needs with their stacked sats--and specifically, how much of a disturbance those customer needs will be to the nominal starlink-only processing flow. For instance, maybe a customer just needs to charge the batteries every other week and can do so remotely, but if that operation needs to happen twice a week with an operator sitting next to a rack that's hardwired to the rocket, that's a bit more annoying. Insurance is 5% which is pretty good--not a lot of margin there (other than the fact that F9 reliability is mega).
Weather is currently 80% good for launch and the current launch time is 5:42am EDT within the one hour window due to optimal weather conditions. That is an early assessment and could easily readjust at this point.
Don't actually know that this was the most recent launch, but cool either way: Starlink fairing deploy sequence : spacex
I love that! Beautiful view of the Starlink sat stack. The POV of that fairing camera makes it look like the 2nd stage makes a sharp turn and accelerates away rapidly; it made me laugh.