HERDING CUBESATS Spaceflight's SSO-A mission a logistical headache

摘要

The concept of large-scale ride-share missions, where dozens of cubesats or other smallsats are launched on a single rocket, has clear benefits for some smallsat users. Because larger launch vehicles usually have lower costs per kilogram of payload than small vehicles, users can get cheaper prices for launching smallsats, provided that rideshare mission is going to their desired orbit at their desired time.But such missions are not without their challenges, both for the launch provider and satellite operators. Pulling together large numbers of satellites from many customers creates technical, logistical and regulatory issues for the launch provider, while operators are often uncertain about exactly where their satellites are after deployment.