A Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 5 rocket launched the Transporter-9 multi-satellite rideshare mission from the Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, USA, at 1849 GMT on11 November 2023. The reusable first stage, B1071 on its 12th flight, landed back on Californian land at Landing Zone 4 (LZ4). The flight was to a Sun-sychronous low Earth orbit – a popular orbit for low Earth observation satellites. Some 90 satellites were to be released in 89 deployment events. However, it later emerged that three satellites AMAN-1, JINJUSat-1 and Picacho had failed to deploy. For a time it was thought that Pichacho had deployed as it appeared to be transmitting and had thus unfurled a long antenna.
Some which were released successfully, such as the ION SCV013 Ultimate Hugo spacecraft were OTV (Orbital Transfer Vehicles) – satellite delivery satellites dropping a further 23 satellites off. A full listing is on this story by NASASpaceflight.com https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2023/11/transporter-9/
Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 5 launch carrying Transporter 9 rideshare mission. Courtesy: SpaceX via NASASpaceflight.com
