• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar
  • NEWS:
  • SatNews
  • SatMagazine
  • MilSatMagazine
  • SmallSat News
  • |     EVENTS:
  • SmallSat Symposium
  • Satellite Innovation
  • MilSat Symposium

SatNews

  • HOME
  • Magazines
  • Events
  • SmallSat Europe Insights
  • Industry Calendar
    • IN PERSON
    • VIRTUAL
  • Subscribe

Spaceflight’s Statement Regarding The SpaceX Move To Sever Launch Ties

March 21, 2022

Information from From Jodi Sorensen, Vice President of Marketing, Spaceflight

The SpaceX Rideshare Team sent an email last Friday morning to an undisclosed list of rideshare customers and that email said:

“For awareness, we will no longer be flying or working with Spaceflight Industries after currently manifested missions. We look forward to reliably launching all customers currently on manifest and growing our relationships with new operators as well.”

In an effort to provide transparency to our customers and the industry, we wanted to share a few additional thoughts and comments.

We were genuinely surprised to learn of SpaceX’s decision. We are continuing to reach out to SpaceX in an attempt to discuss their position, but haven’t heard back yet.

Curt Blake, Spaceflight president and CEO, said, “We are surprised and disappointed by SpaceX’s decision. We will continue to work with them on our current missions as planned, and hope to work with SpaceX again in the future. We are simultaneously accelerating alternate launch options via our large network of launch providers to serve our customers’ launch needs, including more Sherpa missions. Flexibility has always been a foundational element of our strategy, and we’re unwavering in our commitment to deliver a safe and reliable launch experience for all. It’s been extremely encouraging to hear from so many of our customers in support of our launch and in-space transportation services.”

If you’re wondering about the January Transporter-3 mission, the decision to remove the Sherpa-LTC1 vehicle, and how that may have played into SpaceX’s decision, here’s some background:

We reported in late December that, due to an issue with the propulsion system onboard our Sherpa-LTC1, we wouldn’t be flying it on the mission. The root cause analysis determined that a relief event occurred on the oxidizer circuit, which actuated per design. Out of utmost concern, Spaceflight decided not to fly the Sherpa vehicle. All affected customers were re-manifested within weeks and have already flown on alternative launches or are scheduled to fly in the next two months.

The key takeaway is Spaceflight has since worked with the vendor to address the root cause and has subsequently received approval from SpaceX to fly the system on a mission scheduled for later this year. More to come about that mission, but needless to say, we’re confident in our ability, along with our vendor partners, to fly our Sherpa product line.

As for the upcoming April Transporter-4 mission, here’s a bit more: About a week ago, SpaceX informed us that our Sherpa vehicle would not fly on the Transporter-4 mission due to concerns about the test levels for customer spacecraft installed on Sherpa. Some have speculated that Sherpa failed a vibration test, and that is not the case. The vibration test was 100% successful, with no failures observed with Sherpa post-test. Sherpa itself was subjected to all expected launch environments with industry standard factors. Spaceflight and SpaceX continued to discuss analysis and test products up until Spaceflight was informed that SpaceX would not fly the vehicle, which was the day of final integration to the SpaceX vehicle.

As soon as Spaceflight was made aware of these requests/concerns about the analysis and test results of Sherpa and its customer payloads, we immediately worked to address them with SpaceX. Despite our best efforts, SpaceX chose not to fly the Sherpa vehicle until the analysis and test approaches could be better understood. We will continue to work with SpaceX to understand their decision and address any concerns for future missions.

Our teams immediately began working to rebook all of the affected spacecraft. We’re pleased to report that, within days, all were re-manifested: several will continue to fly on this mission, while the others have been rebooked on alternative launches.

What’s this all mean?

First and foremost, we’re continuing to work with the SpaceX mission management and technical teams on a daily basis to ensure our current and upcoming missions are successful.

We have flown several Sherpa vehicles on SpaceX Transporter missions in the past year, delivering more than 50 customer payloads successfully on-orbit. Mission assurance is the foundation of our services and our unparalleled commitment to payload safety has enabled us to successfully execute many industry firsts and complex configurations. In fact, Sherpa-LTE1 which launched in June 2021 on Transporter-2, continues to operate on orbit showcasing Spaceflight’s commitment to mission assurance and engineering acumen.

Our Sherpa vehicles are designed to be operable with many different launch vehicles. We’re proud of the work that our teams and our partners are doing to further develop our Sherpa program, and are looking forward to many upcoming missions.

Onward.

Filed Under: Business Moves, Launch, Launch Vehicle, Mission, Multi-Launch Agreement, Rideshare

Primary Sidebar

Most Read Stories

  • Space Debris, and the EU’s Space Act
  • In celebration of Juneteenth
  • Wishing Everyone a Happy July 4th … Independence Day, U.S.A.
  • Eutelsat's efforts to obtain funding to save OneWeb
  • Forrester's Digest: Starlink active in Iran

About Satnews

  • Contacts
  • History

Archives

  • July 2025
  • June 2025
  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020

Secondary Sidebar

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkPrivacy policy
x
Sign up Now (For Free)
Access daily or weekly satellite news updates covering all aspects of the commercial and military satellite industry.
Invalid email address
Notify Me Regarding ( At least one ):
We value your privacy and will not sell or share your email or other information with any other company. You may also unsubscribe at anytime.

Click Here to see our full privacy policy.
Thanks for subscribing!