A $330 million German hyperspectral Earth-imaging satellite will hitch a trip to orbit from Cape Canaveral with 39 smaller business payloads on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket set for blastoff Friday.
The German statement satellite — named the Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program, or EnMAP — is sitting on top of a stack of microsatellites, CubeSats, and even smaller “picosats” prepared for launch at 12:24 p.m. EDT (1624 GMT) Friday.
The mission is SpaceX’s fourth devoted rideshare launch, referred to as Transporter 4, carrying a flotilla of payloads for business startups and overseas governments. The 40 payloads on the Transporter 4 mission embody spacecraft of varied sizes, plus “non-deploying hosted payloads and an orbital transfer vehicle carrying spacecraft to be deployed at a later time,” SpaceX stated.
EnMAP is the largest of the bunch, weighing roughly 2,160 kilos (980 kilograms) and in regards to the measurement of a compact automobile, dwarfing its co-passengers on the Transporter 4 mission.
The EnMAP challenge is managed by DLR, the German area company, which first accredited the satellite for growth in 2006. The launch of EnMAP has been delayed a decade because of technological and engineering issues, primarily related to the satellite’s subtle imaging instrument.
The satellite will scan Earth’s floor with a telescope and twin spectrometers tuned to see daylight mirrored off the bottom, lakes, rivers, and oceans in 242 colours.
“EnMAP is a satellite that acquires images of Earth,” stated Sebastian Fischer, the mission supervisor at DLR. “However, an image is normally recorded in three different colors: red, green and blue. The unique thing about EnMAP is that it does not only concentrate on these three colors, but the light is split into very many, very small wavelength ranges.”
The further element can inform scientists, policymakers, companies, farmers, and foresters in regards to the state of the surroundings, giving insights in regards to the well being of vegetation and water air pollution.
With EnMAP, “we have a separate image for each wavelength range, which we can then analyze,” Fischer stated. “And we can detect, for example, if a plant does not have enough water, or if the plant is missing nutrients.”
The EnMAP spacecraft and its hyperspectral imaging instrument have been constructed by the German area firm OHB. Originally, the plan was to ship EnMAP aloft on a devoted flight on a smaller rocket, similar to India’s PSLV or the European Vega launcher, Fischer stated.
But SpaceX’s rideshare program provided EnMAP a trip to area on the proper time.
“In a moment where the launcher market is not too easy to get a quick launch ready for your mission, we were able to find with SpaceX a launch service that was fitting perfectly to our schedule, and that was one of the main reasons for the connection,” Fischer stated.
None of the opposite rockets on the business launch market provided a flight that match EnMAP’s schedule.
“We prefer to get it launched as soon as possible rather than delaying the program even further,” Fischer stated in an interview with Spaceflight Now.
SpaceX introduced its small satellite rideshare launch service in 2019. It launched the primary Transporter mission on Jan. 24, 2021, with a report 143 satellites on a single rocket. The Transporter 2 mission on June 30, 2021, carried 88 payloads into orbit, and Transporter 3 launched Jan. 13 with 105 spacecraft.
The manifest for Transporter 4 is all the way down to 40 spacecraft, however that’s primarily because of EnMAP’s presence on the mission. The satellite is heavier than any of the satellites SpaceX has flown on any of the earlier Transporter missions, and the Falcon 9 will ship EnMAP to an orbit 404 miles (650 kilometers) above Earth, greater than the the previous rideshare launches.
![](https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/trans4stack1.jpg)
SpaceX intends to launch as many as 4 devoted ridehsare flights on Falcon 9 rockets this yr, doubling the speed of Transporter launches from about one each six months to at least one each three-to-four months.
There’s excessive demand for the rideshare launch service. Several SpaceX prospects have stated the value for a slot on a Transporter mission is unmatched within the launch trade.
On its web site, SpaceX says it prices prospects as little as $1.1 million to launch a payload of 440 kilos (200 kilograms) on a devoted rideshare flight to sun-synchronous orbit. The value is enabled by value reductions from reusing Falcon 9 rocket {hardware}.
Earlier this month, SpaceX hiked its rideshare launch costs by 10%, from $1 million to $1.1 million for a 440-pound payloads, blaming “excessive levels of inflation.” The firm raised its commonplace devoted Falcon 9 launch value from $62 million to $67 million for a similar cause.
Fischer declined to reveal SpaceX’s launch value for EnMAP, however stated the expense was included within the mission’s complete finances of about 300 million euros ($330 million), which additionally consists of 5 years of operations in orbit. EnMAP’s finances was initially set for 90 million euros.
The EnMAP spacecraft arrived at Cape Canaveral from Germany in late February aboard a Russian Ilyushin Il-76 cargo airplane, touching down in Florida just a few days earlier than the U.S. authorities banned Russian plane from U.S. airspace after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Engineers verified the spacecraft weathered its trans-Atlantic journey, then loaded EnMAP with hydrazine gasoline in mid-March.
“It was a bit of a challenge to get EnMAP on a rideshare mission because it’s big satellite with a lot of stuff that we needed to do at the launch site to check all the functions of the satellite,” Fischer stated. “But I have to say everything went very smooth. The whole launch campaign was not delayed by one day.”
SpaceX encapsulated EnMAP and its 39 co-passengers contained in the Falcon 9 rocket’s payload fairing final week, then built-in the payload compartment with the check of the launcher. Ground groups rolled the Falcon 9 from its hangar to pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, then raised the 229-foot (70-meter) rocket vertical Thursday afternoon.
An automated countdown sequencer will oversee loading of kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants into the rocket Friday, with countdown clocks set for an instantaneous launch alternative at 12:24 p.m. EST.
But there’s only a 30% probability climate at Cape Canaveral might be acceptable for liftoff Friday. The modifications enhance Saturday, when there’s a 50% probability of favorable climate for launch.
Once off the bottom, the Falcon 9 will head southeast over the Atlantic Ocean, then flip south to fly alongside the east coast of Florida, then over Cuba and the Caribbean Sea to position its 40 spacecraft passengers into polar orbit.
The rocket’s first stage will shut down its 9 Merlin foremost engines and separate from the Falcon 9 higher stage about two-and-a-half minutes into the mission. While the higher stage fires into orbit, the booster will fall again into the ambiance tail first, utilizing periodic engine burns and hypersonic grid fins to information itself towards SpaceX’s drone ship parked within the Atlantic Ocean southeast of Miami and west of the Bahamas — about 330 miles (530 kilometers) downrange from Cape Canaveral.
The reusable rocket, numbered B1061 in SpaceX’s fleet, will land on the drone ship 10-and-a-half minutes after liftoff to conclude its seventh journey to area.
![](https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/f9trans4pre1.jpg)
The second stage engine will change off moments earlier than the primary stage lands on the drone ship, setting the stage for deployment of the EnMAP spacecraft 14 minutes into the mission.
“EnMAP will be the first satellite that is separated because we want to make sure we limit the structural loads during separation of the other satellites,” Fischer stated. “That was very important for EnMAP, that we be the first ones (to separate). So we’ll be taken to our orbit at 650 kilometers, and then we will be separated.”
EnMAP is scheduled to determine radio contract with German floor groups by means of a monitoring station in Svalbard, Norway, about an hour after separating from the Falcon 9, in response to Fischer.
After two weeks of checkouts and activations, EnMAP’s instrument might be calibrated and commissioned earlier than the satellite begins its operational mission within the September timeframe.
Capable of amassing spectra in seen and infrared mild bands, EnMAP will see particulars of Earth’s surfaces invisible to the human eye, closing a niche in Earth statement missions, in response to Walther Pelzer, head of DLR and a member of DLR’s government board.
“We are then able to determine the fingerprints of different materials, or behavior of certain surfaces, especially natural surfaces, so agriculture and forests,” Fischer stated.
The information might inform farmers the place to irrigate or fertilize their crops, and establish the kinds of crops being grown in fields around the globe, inside packing containers as small as 100 toes (30 meters).
“This information is obviously important in order to be able to secure the food situation in the future with an increasing world population,” Pelzer stated.
The mission will even measure algae development and air pollution in inland and coastal waters.
EnMAP information might be launched to scientists inside just a few days, and freed from cost. The mission isn’t designed to repeatedly observe, however it might take information over the identical area as usually as each 4 days, utilizing the spacecraft’s means to level 30 levels both facet of its floor observe.
Once EnMAP is off the Falcon 9, the rocket will deploy two different payloads: spacecraft named LEO-1, whose proprietor has not been publicly recognized, and the 88-pound (40-kilogram) GNOMES 3 radio occultation atmospheric monitoring satellite for a Colorado-based firm named PlanetiQ.
Two extra temporary engine burns by the Falcon 9 higher stage will decrease the rocket’s altitude to about 310 miles (500 kilometers), and alter the orbit’s inclination of 97.9 levels to 97.4 levels to the equator. The remainder of the Transporter 4 payloads will separate from the rocket in that orbit.
The different payloads embody 5 spacecraft for Satellogic’s business Earth statement fleet, rising the Argentine firm’s constellation to 22 satellites. One of the Satellogic “NewSat” satellites launching on Transporter 4 is an upgraded spacecraft mannequin with an improved digicam and on-board computer systems.
There are three formation-flying spacecraft on the Transporter 4 launch for HawkEye 360, a U.S. firm constructing a satellite constellation to detect and find the supply of terrestrial radio alerts. HawkEye 360 says its RF monitoring satellites not too long ago detected GPS interference in Ukraine as Russian navy forces invaded the nation.
Lynk Global, a Virginia-based firm creating expertise to attach commonplace cell phones by means of satellites, is launching its sixth spacecraft on the Transporter 4 mission, in accordance Charles Miller, the corporate’s CEO. Named Lynk Tower 1, it’s the primary satellite coated in Lynk Global’s utility for business service with the Federal Communications Commission.
The firm refers to its expertise as akin to a cell tower in area, offering two-way connectivity for broadband, voice, and textual content messaging wherever on the planet.
Other satellites on the Transporter 4 mission embody MP42, a brand new design for a microsatellite platform developed by NanoAvionics in Lithuania. The BRO-7 CubeSat, in regards to the measurement of a small briefcase, might be launched for the French startup UnseenLabs, which is fielding a constellation of satellites for maritime surveillance.
The Norwegian Defense Research Establishment, a analysis arm of the Norwegian navy, is launching the ARCSAT six-unit CubeSat to show UHF tactical communications within the North Sea and the Arctic area.
The Transporter 4 mission will even launch a CubeSat named BDSAT from the Czech Republic for a expertise demonstration mission, the AlfaCrux academic and tech demo CubeSat from the University of Brasilia in Brazil, and a small satellite from India named Shakuntala.
There are additionally 12 tiny “picosatellites” on the Transporter 4 mission for Swarm Technologies, an organization owned by Space. Swarm is creating a low-data-rate satellite communications system. Each of the Swarm satellites is in regards to the measurement of a slice of bread.
A satellite for the Italian firm D-Orbit will even deploy from the Falcon 9 rocket on the Transporter 4 mission. D-Orbit’s ION satellite provider automobile will fly away from the Falcon 9 and launch seven smaller spacecraft within the next few weeks.
D-Orbit’s prospects embody Kleos Space of Luxembourg, with 4 satellites on the ION provider automobile. Kleos says its satellites can detect and geolocate radio frequency transmissions, offering intelligence on maritime exercise for governments and business prospects. The Kleos mission is just like the HawkEye 360 spacecraft additionally flying on the Transporter 4 launch.
Three university-built CubeSats from Chile are additionally driving on D-Orbit’s satellite provider module, and a payload that can stay connected to the ION automobile carrying small objects from 4 shoppers of Upmosphere, an Italian startup providing lodging for purchasers to position keepsakes and mementos into wood packing containers for a flight into orbit.
A mission timeline launched by SpaceX reveals the entire Transporter 4 payloads will separate from the Falcon 9 rocket by T+plus 1 hour, 26 seconds.
Email the creator.
Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.