Seattle, WA – April 21, 2013. Spaceflight Inc. (Spaceflight) announced today that it successfully deployed five CubeSats from two different launch vehicles that were launched from two different continents.
On Friday April 19, 2013, the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle successfully lifted off from its pad in Baikonur to insert the Bion-M1 satellite into orbit. The Bion-M1 spacecraft is a biological research satellite that carried a host of experiments aimed at researching how to make life in space easier and healthier for astronauts.
The Bion-M1 also transported several secondary passengers, one of which is a Spaceflight 3U ISIPOD carrying the Dove-2 spacecraft, a 3U CubeSat made by Cosmogia Inc. The launch was arranged in a cooperation between Spaceflight Inc and ISIS’ subsidiary Innovative Space Logistics (ISL). ISL was responsible for the execution of the launch campaign.
As per the mission plan, the Dove-2 spacecraft was successfully deployed from the Bion-M spacecraft at approximately 10:00 UTC today, April 21st.
Later the same day, at 21:00 UTC, Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB) successfully launched the maiden flight of the Antares vehicle, termed A-One. On this flight were two Spaceflight 3U ISIPODs which were successfully deployed into their target orbits.
The first Spaceflight ISIPOD deployed the Dove-1 spacecraft, a 3U CubeSat made by Cosmogia Inc.
The second Spaceflight ISIPOD deployed three 1U (10x10x10 cm) PhoneSat spacecraft built by NASA Ames Research Center and dubbed Alexander, Graham and Bell. The PhoneSat project is a small spacecraft technology demonstration mission funded by NASA’s Space Technology Program which is managed by the Office of the Chief Technologist. Each of NASA’s PhoneSat spacecraft will demonstrate the ability to operate the lowest-cost and easiest to build satellites ever flown in space – capabilities enabled by using off-the-shelf consumer smartphones to build spacecraft.
By 24:00 UTC, ground controllers had received data from all five spacecraft signaling successful deployments.
“This is a very exciting day,” said Jason Andrews, President and CEO of Spaceflight Inc. “Spaceflight was founded with a vision of providing commercial launch services for small and secondary payloads, and now we have turned that vision into reality.”
“We would like to congratulate our customers Cosmogia, Inc. and NASA Ames Research Center, as well as our launch services providers Roscosmos and Orbital Sciences Corporation,” continued Andrews. “To deploy five satellites within hours of each other from two launch vehicles launched from two continents speaks to the power of the commercial rideshare business model.”
About Spaceflight, Inc.:
Spaceflight Inc. provides routine access to space for deployed and hosted payloads at affordable prices by using standard flight interfaces, frequent flight opportunities and published commercial pricing. More information about Spaceflight and specific flight opportunities can be found on the company’s website: spaceflightservices.com.
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