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Luxembourg, 12 November 2020. – Spaceflight, a rideshare and mission management provider, will launch new transfer vehicles to tug smallsats into customized orbits in 2021, the Seattle-based company announced.
Spaceflight develops two next-generation orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs) that will debut in 2021; the first, Sherpa-FX, is to fly on the SpaceX rideshare mission in December 2020. It will carry 14 spacecraft.
The next two, Sherpa-LTC and Sherpa-LTE, are designed to “provide more orbital diversification, including flexible manifest changes, deployment to multiple altitudes and orbital planes, and rapid launch solutions”, Spaceflight said.
Sherpa-LTC is to enable spacecraft to reach higher orbits and is scheduled to fly the second half of 2021. Sherpa-LTE is capable of delivering customers to a GEO, Cislunar or Earth-escape orbit and is targeted to fly mid-2021, Spaceflight said.
Spaceflight works with more than 10 current and future launch vehicles, including Falcon 9, Antares, Electron, Vega, and PSLV. The company has launched more than 300 satellites across nearly 34 rideshare missions so far.
