11 November SpaceX started 100 satellites The ninth in a series of special joint missions to a small satellite, it is the latest flight of a program that has generated both admiration and disdain in the commercial space industry. Falcon 9 took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 13:49 for the eastern Transporter-9 mission. The launch vehicle, which had previously carried out 11 missions, including Transporter-8 in June, landed at the launch site seven and a half minutes after takeoff.

Transporter 9 carried 90 payloads that were deployed within half an hour, approximately 55 minutes after liftoff, but there was no initial confirmation of successful deployment of multiple satellites. These payloads included several orbiters that would later deploy their satellites, bringing the total number of satellites at launch to over 110.

Transporter-9’s customer with the largest payload capacity was Planet. At launch, the company had 36 Dove cubic imaging machines, collectively referred to as Flock 4Q. It also flew Pelican-1, a technical demonstration satellite for the future Pelican and Tanager high-resolution and hyperspectral imaging satellites.

Other satellite constellation operators launching satellites on Transporter-9 include Spire, which operates the constellation to collect weather data and ship tracking data, and synthetic aperture radar imaging companies Iceye and Umbra. The Spire satellite suite included three satellites for GHGSat to monitor greenhouse gases; one of which is the first commercial satellite to monitor carbon dioxide emissions.

Newcomers at the launch included Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn, known for producing consumer electronics products such as Apple’s iPhone. The company, also known as Hon Hai Technology Group, deployed the first two Cubesats, Pearl-1H and Pearl-1C, into the mission. The spacecraft “is a pilot launch as a proof of concept for our next-generation satellite broadband efforts beyond LEO and 5G capabilities,” Jen-Ming Wu of Hon Hai Research Institute said Nov. 6.

Foxconn’s two satellites are among nearly three dozen satellites launched by Exolaunch, one of several satellite sharing brokers. Others include Maverick Space Systems, SEOPS and Momentus, which includes five satellites on the mission but without one of the Vigoride tugs.

D-Orbit, another major user of Transporter missions, flew another ION tug in Transporter-9. Two new orbiter developers, Exotrail and Impulse Space, have sent their first tugs, Spacevan-001 and Impulse-1, on a mission.

Carrier missions have caused turmoil in the commercial space industry. Satellite operators and joint launch brokers have praised them for providing regular and inexpensive access to space, especially when other launch providers have limited options.

“I cannot underestimate how important the carrier mission is to the NewSpace industry,” Umbra COO Todd Master said on social media. “There are so many businesses that have been created because of this that would not have existed 5 years ago.”

But small launch vehicle developers say Transporter missions undermine their business model by offering launch services at a much lower cost per kilogram than their own vehicles. Some have gone so far as to accuse SpaceX of predatory pricing, claiming that the company offers carrier launch services at a lower cost.

“They are slowly taking over what small launch vehicles can do,” Kurt Blake, a former chief executive of launch services company Spaceflight who now heads the commercial space group at law firm Wilson Sonsini, told Satellite Innovation. The conference was held in Mountain View, California last month. Small launch vehicles could still fill some gaps, he argued, “but you have to think of it as a threat.”

SpaceX continues to see high demand for its Transporter services. The company’s online booking system indicates that the earliest opportunity to launch Transporter missions into sun-synchronous orbit will be in October 2025. In August, the company announced a new series of medium-inclination orbit-sharing missions called Bandwagon, starting in 2024. The earliest possible opportunity for Bandwagon missions is November 2024.