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SpaceX shares the sky with smallsat rideshare mission

On Friday, August 16, SpaceX launched its rideshare satellites. Photo captured by Satnews from SpaceX’s video stream.

A beautiful day at the beach just perfect for a launch. SpaceX enjoyed another successful launch at 11:53 PDT on Friday, August 16, when Falcon 9 launched the Transporter-11 mission to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

On Friday, August 16, SpaceX launched its rideshare satellites. Photo captured by Satnews from SpaceX’s video stream.

Transporter 11 includes a variety of payloads from different companies such as an Nvidia Jetson Orin NX chip that provides AI and edge computing graphics processing unit (GPU). 

There are 116 payloads on this flight, including CubeSats, MicroSats, and an orbital transfer vehicle carrying eight of those payloads, five of which will be be deployed at a later time. To date, SpaceX has launched more than 1,000 smallsats for 130+ customers across their entire Rideshare program.

On Friday, August 16, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 has a perfect landing. Photo captured by Satnews from SpaceX’s video stream.

This is the 12th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission which previously launched SDA-0A, SARah-2, and nine Starlink missions. Following stage separation, Falcon 9 landed on Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg Space Force Base.

SpaceX ready to smallsat rideshare 116 payloads on Friday

SpaceX is targeting Friday, August 16 for Falcon 9’s launch of the Transporter-11 mission to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The 53-minute window opens at 11:20 a.m. PT. If needed, there is a backup opportunity on Saturday, August 17 at the same time.

A live webcast of this mission will begin about 10 minutes prior to liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX.

This will be the 12th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission which previously launched SDA-0A, SARah-2, and nine Starlink missions. Following stage separation, Falcon 9 will land on Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg Space Force Base.

Transporter-11 is SpaceX’s 11th dedicated smallsat rideshare mission. There will be 116 payloads on this flight, including CubeSats, MicroSats, and an orbital transfer vehicle carrying eight of those payloads, five of which will be be deployed at a later time. To date, SpaceX has launched more than 1,000 smallsats for 130+ customers across our entire Rideshare program.