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Spaceflight’s Sherpa-AC tug successfully deploys satellites

Sherpa-AC

Capitalism in space: Spaceflight’s first orbital tug, dubbed Sherpa-AC and launched on SpaceX’s May 25th smallsat Falcon 9 mission, has successfully deployed its satellites as planned.

Spaceflight successfully delivered all five customer payloads, including two hosted payloads on the Sherpa OTV [Orbital Transfer Vehicle, or tug], to their desired orbital destinations.

The Transporter 5 mission marks Spaceflight’s 51st launch, its sixth in 2022, and the first launch of the Sherpa-AC OTV model. Sherpa-AC, named for its “Attitude Control” capabilities, augments Spaceflight’s base free-flying Sherpa with key functionality including a flight computer, attitude knowledge and control, and more, making it ideal for servicing hosted payloads on orbit.

Organizations on Spaceflight’s Transporter 5 mission include Xona Space’s Huginn mission, NearSpace Launch Inc.’s TROOP-3, MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s Agile Micro Sat, and Missile Defense Agency’s CNCE Block 2.

The picture above, reduced to post here, shows Sherpa-AC as launched. According to Spaceflight’s webpage, Sherpa-AC can act either as the service module for a smallsat, providing power, attitude control, and communications, or as a tug, bringing the cubesat to its desired orbit and then deploying it. On this flight three cubesats were deployed, and two remain attached, using Sherpa-AC as their service module.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


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"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

4 comments

  • Col Beausabre

    I am OUTRAGED! How dare they name their space tug after an indigenous people who has been reduced to servitude for white tourists! It should be named for one of mankind’s true heroes like Karl Marx or Fidel Castro.

  • Col, I do not know how many tugs the company plans on building, but perhaps they could name them after Sherpas. There are some famous ones. And, you will notice, without the Sherpa, nothing gets done. Hardly an insult.

    I know you were having some fun, but I do think the burgeoning commercial space sector is missing marketing tie-in opportunities. I don’t expect to see Elon Musk pitching Tang, but commercial space is here, right now. Maybe the creative agencies could start working that into the public consciousness.

  • Col Beausabre

    See “Notable People”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenzing_Norgay

    Ads – please don’t the various space craft end up looking like NASCAR racers!

  • “Ads – please don’t the various space craft end up looking like NASCAR racers!”

    The more money and interest tied to commercial space, the more likely to enjoy freedom of operation.

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