SpaceX is taking applications for its much-anticipated rideshare program. Don’t get your hopes up — it’s for rockets, not humans. Called the Smallsat Rideshare Program, it’s aimed at small satellite customers.
Applications for the program opened up on February 5, and rideshare missions start at $1 million to use a Falcon 9 rocket to get your satellite into orbit. In the grand scheme of things, a $1 million price point is cheap for this sort of thing.
Interested applicants can choose between their desired orbit — sun-synchronous, low-Earth or, polar — and their desired date (flights begin this June). Inputting your estimated payload will give you an estimated cost, but pricing starts at $1 million for up to 400 pounds at a sun-synchronous orbit. After that, it’s an additional $5,000 for approximately every 2 pounds (1 kg).
SpaceX can also offer on-site fueling, insurance, and port adapters for additional costs. A $5,000 credit card deposit is required before you “check out.”
There’s an extensive user guide on what requirements you have to meet to use the program, but it’s the first program of its kind that allows essentially anyone with the right technology (and enough money) to launch something into space.
The program also means that smaller customers would no longer have to “piggyback” on a larger launch, enabling them to plan their mission with much greater assurance.
In August, SpaceX told Digital Trends that the company is aiming to ramp up commercial its efforts.
“We’re committed to serving the commercial market as it grows and changes, and we believe we can address the needs of small satellite operators by offering reliable, cost-effective access to orbit through regularly scheduled, dedicated rideshare missions,” a SpaceX spokesperson said.
The online application tool is just as easy as ordering a custom car model on Tesla’s website, SpaceX’s sister company.
Aside from helping others get their satellites into space, SpaceX also launches its own Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbits. So far, it’s launched four batches (about 240 satellites) into space since May of last year.
In the company’s own words, the Starlink satellite project aims to “deploy the world’s most advanced broadband internet system” to provide “fast, reliable internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable.”
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.