A satellite dispenser is a

space tug ''Space Tug'' is a young adult science fiction novel by author Murray Leinster. It was published in 1953 by Shasta Publishers in an edition of 5,000 copies. It is the second novel in the author's Joe Kenmore series. Groff Conklin gave it a mi ...

usually released from the upper stage (sometimes called kick stage) of a rocket and designed to fly small secondary payloads to their desired location before deploying them. Project West Ford launched 480,000,000 needles in space in 1961 and 1963 using a dispenser. The company Moog Inc. launched a satellite dispenser on a

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a partially reusable medium lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit, produced by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and pa ...

rocket on 14 July 2014, placing 6

Orbcomm ''ORBCOMM'' is an American company that offers industrial Internet of things (IoT) and machine to machine (M2M) communications hardware, software and services designed to track, monitor, and control fixed and mobile assets in markets including t ...

satellites in orbit. SHERPA is a satellite dispenser first launched on 3 December 2018 on a rideshare mission called ''SSO-A: SmallSat Express''. The two SHERPA dispensers placed a number of 64 satellites, after separating from the

Falcon 9 Block 5 Falcon 9 Block 5 is a partially reusable two-stage-to-orbit medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. It is the fifth version of Falcon 9 Full Thrust, powered by SpaceX Merlin engines burning rocket-g ...

rocket once it entered a polar Sun-synchronous orbit around 575 kilometers above Earth.Spaceflight preps for first launch of unique orbiting satellite deployers
Stephern Clarke, Spaceflight Now''. 23 August 2018.'' Canisterized Satellite Dispenser is a satellite dispenser created by Planetary Systems Corp, launched on 17 April 2019 with the Cygnus NG-11 mission.

ION CubeSat Carrier ION Satellite Carrier (formerly ION CubeSat Carrier) is a satellite platform developed, manufactured, and operated by Italian company D-Orbit. The platform features a customizable 64U satellite dispenser capable of hosting a combination of Cube ...

is a satellite dispenser launched on 3 September 2020 on a

Vega Vega is the brightest star in the northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United Sta ...

rocket, mission

Vega flight VV16 Vega flight VV16, also called SSMS PoC Flight (for ''Small Spacecraft Mission Service Proof of Concept Flight''), was the launch of the Vega rocket. The launch was also notable as it was the first Vega launch following the accident of the VV1 ...

, and carried 12 SuperDove satellites from Planet Labs. The company Launcher is developing an orbital transfer vehicle named Orbiter which will be able to carry up to 90U of

cubesat A CubeSat is a class of miniaturized satellite based around a form factor consisting of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSat ...

s or other smallsats.

Notes

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See also

Notes