Spaceflight, the leading provider of mission management and rideshare integration services, announced that together with Hypergiant SEOPS, it will be launching three CubeSats from the International Space Station (ISS) and Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft in early January.

The payloads will travel to the ISS through a NASA Commercial Resupply (CRS) mission aboard a SpaceX Dragon scheduled to launch atop a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on December 4. The payloads are expected to reach the ISS several days later. Once they arrive, the ISS crew will transfer the cargo from Dragon to the ISS, where it will be stored for several weeks until the Cygnus cargo vehicle is prepared to depart the ISS.

At that time, astronauts will mount the dispensers with the satellites already attached on the Cygnus hatch bulkhead. Once the ISS side-hatch is closed, the space between the ISS and Cygnus spacecraft is depressurized. The ISS robotic arm will then unberth the Cygnus from the ISS. Cygnus will maneuver itself to a higher orbit (450-500 km altitude, 51.6-degree inclination) and then deploy the satellites in January.

Spacecraft on Spaceflight's SEOPS-2 mission include:

+ Two NASA CubeSats, both selected for flight by NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative to fly on the ELaNa 28 mission:

+ Compact Infrared Radiometer in Space instrument (CIRiS), built by Ball Aerospace, is designed to investigate and optimize the calibration of infrared images acquired from a 6U CubeSat and can benefit a variety of Earth science applications, including land and water use management. CIRiS was selected by NASA's In Space Validation of Earth Science Technology (InVEST) program.

+ EdgeCube, a student-built 1U CubeSat, developed via a partnership with Sonoma State University, Santa Clara University, and Morehead State University, is designed to see ecosystem change over time, as well as train and educate future STEM students.

+ A DARPA 6U CubeSat

Spaceflight has named the mission SEOPS-2, but it is also referred to as ISS SpX-19/NG-12, representing the two CRS missions converging at the ISS (a SpaceX Dragon and a Northrop Grumman Cygnus). Spaceflight and Hypergiant successfully executed a similar mission, dubbed SEOPS-1, in August 2019 which took three spacecraft to orbit.

"This unique approach to launch from the ISS has proven to be a valuable option for customers looking for a high-altitude deployment," said Curt Blake, CEO of Spaceflight. "After the success of our SEOPS-1 mission, we were eager to execute another with Hypergiant. These launches are particularly appealing to our customers because of the reliability of the launch vehicles, cost-effectiveness, and consistency in the launch schedule."

"It's a privilege to help the U.S. government, students and scientists improve our ability to live, work and thrive on Earth through these deployments with Spaceflight, SpaceX, the ISS, and Northrop Grumman," said Chad Brinkley, chief space officer at Hypergiant.

This will be Spaceflight's seventh mission this year. In 2019, Spaceflight will launch nearly 50 spacecraft from four different launch vehicles. Other noteworthy missions from this year include Spaceflight's GTO-1, which deployed the first commercial lunar lander aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 and its first three missions with Rocket Lab.

The SEOPS-2 mission will launch about one year after the Spaceflight's historic dedicated rideshare mission, SSO-A, which successfully launched 64 unique smallsats, making it the single largest deployment of satellites from a U.S.-based launch vehicle.

Related Links
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Microsat News and Nanosat News at SpaceMart.com

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