Firefly Aerospace | Firefly Alpha | Lockheed Martin Mission 2 Rocket Launch
Second of up to 25 launches of Low Earth Orbit technology demonstration satellites to be built and operated by Lockheed Martin. Details of the satellite TBD.
Rocket Lab | Electron | LOXSAT 1 Rocket Launch
LOXSAT 1 is a demonstration satellite of a complete cryogenic oxygen fluid management system in orbit, developed by Eta Space and sponsored by NASA’s Tipping Point program.
The system will be integrated on a Rocket Lab Photon-LEO satellite bus and collect critical cryogenic fluid management data in orbit for 9 months, demonstrating capabilities of in-space cryogenic storage and transferal. Eta Space plans to use technology developed for this mission to develop a truly commercial depot intended to serve multiple customers in the future.
Rocket Lab | Electron | Kakushin Rising (JAXA Rideshare) Rocket Launch
JAXA-manifested rideshare of eight separate spacecraft that includes educational small sats, an ocean monitoring satellite, a demonstration satellite for ultra-small multispectral cameras, and a deployable antenna that can be packed tightly using origami folding techniques and unfurled to 25 times its size.
The satellites were originally planned to launch with RAISE-4 on a Japanese Epsilon-S rocket, but the Epsilon-S was heavily delayed due to test firing failures.
The 8 satellites are:
* MAGNARO-II
* KOSEN-2R
* WASEDA-SAT-ZERO-II
* FSI-SAT2
* OrigamiSat-2
* Mono-Nikko
* ARICA-2
* PRELUDE
Indian Space Research Organization | PSLV | TDS-01 Rocket Launch
TDS-01 (Technology Demonstration Satellite-01) is an Indian geostationary orbit technology demonstration satellite carrying payloads for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s Institute of Plasma Research, Gandhinagar and the CSIR-CEERI, Pilani.
Payloads to be tested included an internally developed 300 mN electric powered thrusters, atomic clocks, travelling wave tube amplifiers (TWTA) & a quantum communication suite (QuTDS).
Northrop Grumman Space Systems | Minotaur IV | STP-S29A Rocket Launch
STP-S29A is a mission under the U.S. Department of Defense’s Space Test Program (STP) that will deliver technology demonstrations to orbit and contribute to future space system development, with this launch delivering up to 200 kg of STP cubesats to Low Earth Orbit.
The main payload will be STPSat-7, an ESPA class satellite based on the Aegis Aerospace M-1 satellite bus used on the STPSat-4 mission for hosting research and technology demonstration payloads for the Department of Defense (DoD). One of the payload is U.S. Naval Research Laboratory’s (NRL) Lightsheet Anomaly Resolution and Debris Observation (LARADO) instrument, used to detect and characterize lethal non-trackable orbital debris with lasers in orbit.