
Secondary payload, also known as rideshare payload, is a smaller-sized
payload
Payload is the object or the entity which is being carried by an aircraft or launch vehicle. Sometimes payload also refers to the carrying capacity of an aircraft or launch vehicle, usually measured in terms of weight. Depending on the nature of ...
transported to
orbit
In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such a ...
on a
launch vehicle
A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pads, supported by a launch control center and syste ...
that is mostly paid for—and with the date and time of launch and the
orbital trajectory determined—by the entity that contracts and pays for the primary launch.
[ As a result, the secondary payload typically obtains a substantially reduced ]price
A price is the (usually not negative) quantity of payment or compensation given by one party to another in return for goods or services. In some situations, the price of production has a different name. If the product is a "good" in t ...
for transportation services to orbit, by accepting a trade off of the loss of control once the contract is signed and the payload is delivered to the launch vehicle supplier for integration to the launch vehicle
A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pads, supported by a launch control center and syste ...
. These tradeoffs typically include having little or no control over the launch date/time, the final orbital parameters, or the ability to halt the launch and remove the payload should a payload failure occur during ground processing prior to launch, as the ''primary payload'' typically purchases all of these launch property rights
The right to property, or the right to own property (cf. ownership) is often classified as a human right for natural persons regarding their possessions. A general recognition of a right to private property is found more rarely and is typically ...
via contract with the launch services provider.
Market
While originally a US government
The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...
-centric option for government-owned launches—where secondary payload slots were often given away by whatever allocation means a government agency might choose—an entire market has emerged over time to take advantage of the lower cost of access to space through secondary payload opportunities.[
The small satellite segment of the satellite launch industry has been growing rapidly in recent years. Development activity has been particularly high in the 1–50 kg size range. In the 1–50 kg range alone, there were fewer than 15 satellites launched annually in 2000 to 2005, 34 in 2006, then fewer than 30 launches annually during 2007 to 2011. This rose to 34 launched in 2012, and 92 small satellites launched in 2013.][
]
United Launch Alliance
Offering of secondary launch services vary by launch provider. US commercial launcher United Launch Alliance
United Launch Alliance (ULA), legally United Launch Alliance, LLC, is an American spacecraft launch service provider that manufactures and operates a number of rocket vehicles that are capable of launching spacecraft into orbits around Earth, ...
(ULA) offers virtually no access for secondary payloads commercially, although the US military
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...
offers some secondary payload slots on ULA launchers Atlas V
Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas launch vehicle family. It was originally designed by Lockheed Martin, now being operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Lockheed Marti ...
and Delta IV
Delta IV is a group of five expendable launch systems in the Delta rocket family introduced in the early 2000s. Originally designed by Boeing's Defense, Space and Security division for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, t ...
, that are then controlled by government launch slot allocation processes.
Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab is a public American aerospace manufacturer and launch service provider, with a New Zealand subsidiary. The company operates lightweight Electron orbital rockets, which provide dedicated launches for small satellites. Rocket Lab al ...
offers rideshare capabilities in their existing Electron
The electron (, or in nuclear reactions) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family,
and are generally thought to be elementary partic ...
rocket. With the ability of the Kick Stage's ability to reignite, the vehicle can alternate between various orbits to deploy the various payloads.
The Photon
A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are Massless particle, massless ...
is a satellite bus designed by Rocket Lab that is a major enhancement to the Kick Stage. It is able to launch multiple satellites to low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never m ...
(LEO), medium Earth orbit
A medium Earth orbit (MEO) is an Earth-centered orbit with an altitude above a low Earth orbit (LEO) and below a high Earth orbit (HEO) – between above sea level. (MEO), geostationary orbit (GEO), lunar, and planetary destinations.
SpaceX
SpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...
offered a priced set of secondary payload launches on their Falcon 9
Falcon 9 is a partially reusable medium lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit, produced by American aerospace company SpaceX.
The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and pa ...
rocket beginning in 2011 with prices between for secondary payloads delivered to low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never m ...
(LEO).[
]
SpaceX indicated that they would continue to launch some secondary payloads, but would not be doing a lot of them, as there was "still not a lot of money in the secondary payload market".[
]
In early August 2019, SpaceX announced a rideshare program for launching small satellites into orbit when their large satellite market was shrinking after 2018. Although SpaceX had previously flown a dedicated secondary payload mission, the program would make customers buy ports directly from SpaceX. Initially SpaceX offered to launch secondary payloads up to to a Sun-synchronous orbit
A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it ...
for if customers signed up at least 12 months before the launch. If between 6 and 12 months, prices would be increased to . For secondary payloads up to if customers signed up 12 months in advance SpaceX offered a base price of and if 6 months in advance . Flights were planned to be launched from SLC-4E
Space Launch Complex 4 (SLC-4) is a launch and landing site at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, U.S. It has two pads, both of which are used by SpaceX for Falcon 9, one for launch operations, and other as Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) for Space ...
at Vandenberg Air Force Base Vandenberg may refer to:
* Vandenberg (surname), including a list of people with the name
* USNS ''General Hoyt S. Vandenberg'' (T-AGM-10), transport ship in the United States Navy, sank as an artificial reef in Key West, Florida
* Vandenberg Sp ...
, starting from November 2020 on the Falcon 9
Falcon 9 is a partially reusable medium lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit, produced by American aerospace company SpaceX.
The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and pa ...
rocket.
However, following the response to the early August announcement; later in the month SpaceX revised plans, reducing prices such that payloads of up to for . In addition SpaceX announced more launch opportunities initially slated to start from March 2020. They would include secondary payloads on Starlink
Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX, providing satellite Internet access coverage to 45 countries. It also aims for global mobile phone service after 2023. SpaceX started launching Starlink satellites in 2019. As ...
missions and others. The maiden flight of this program took place on June 13, 2020, when Starlink 8 was flown with 3 SkySats manufactured by Planet Labs.
Customers have the option of ESPA ports. For dedicated rideshare missions 15-inch and 24-inch diameter rings will have 6 or 4 ports respectively. On Starlink launches, secondary payloads are mounted on the top of the Starlink stack. The mechanical interface for these launches will have two 15-inch-diameter ESPA ports or a single 24-inch-diameter ESPA ports. For these missions, SpaceX has removed a few satellites from their usual 60-satellite configuration. SpaceX also offers custom configuration when requested by the customer.
Arianespace
Vega
Planned for late August 2020 Arianespace
Arianespace SA is a French company founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It undertakes the operation and marketing of the Ariane programme. The company offers a number of different launch vehicles: the heavy- ...
will launch the first dedicated rideshare mission on the Vega
Vega is the brightest star in the northern
Northern may refer to the following:
Geography
* North, a point in direction
* Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe
* Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United Sta ...
rocket. VV16 will launch 53 satellites into a Sun-synchronous orbit
A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it ...
. The flight is part of the Small Spacecraft Mission Service.
Ariane 6
In August 2019 Arianespace
Arianespace SA is a French company founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It undertakes the operation and marketing of the Ariane programme. The company offers a number of different launch vehicles: the heavy- ...
announced rideshare missions directly into geostationary orbit in response to the rise of small satellites needing to be in that orbit. Customers will be able to buy flights up to 6 – 12 months before the launch. Injecting payloads directly into geostationary orbit allows customers not have to raise their spacecraft's orbits after being dropped of into geostationary transfer orbit. The payload will be deployed six hours after the launch. The first launch called, "GO-1" is expected to fly in Q1 or Q2 of 2022 on the Ariane 6
Ariane 6 is a European expendable launch system currently under development since the early 2010s by ArianeGroup on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA). It is intended to replace the Ariane 5, as part of the Ariane launch vehicle famil ...
rocket (64 configuration). The launch will be from Guiana Space Centre
The Guiana Space Centre (french: links=no, Centre spatial guyanais; CSG), also called Europe's Spaceport, is a European spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, a region of France in South America. Kourou is located approximat ...
. Similar flights may fly in an annual basis. Unlike tradition rideshare missions customers do not have to wait on a primary payload to be ready to launch, instead waiting for a payload capacity to be met.
Other
International Launch Services
International Launch Services, Inc. (ILS) is a joint venture with exclusive rights to the worldwide sale of commercial Angara and Proton rocket launch services. Proton launches take place at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan while Angara is l ...
(ILS), a US company that markets launches of the Russian Proton rocket
Proton (Russian: Протон) (formal designation: UR-500) is an expendable launch system used for both commercial and Russian government space launches. The first Proton rocket was launched in 1965. Modern versions of the launch system are sti ...
, does not and has no plans to launch commercial secondary payloads of smallsat
A small satellite, miniaturized satellite, or smallsat is a satellite of low mass and size, usually under . While all such satellites can be referred to as "small", different classifications are used to categorize them based on mass. Satellites ca ...
s or CubeSat
A CubeSat is a class of miniaturized satellite based around a form factor consisting of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSat ...
s.[
] Sea Launch
Sea Launch was a multinational—Norway, Russia, Ukraine, United States—spacecraft launch company founded in 1995 that provided orbital launch services from 1999–2014. The company used a mobile maritime launch platform for equatorial lau ...
, a US-based consortium of US company Boeing
The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and ...
and Russian company RSC Energia
PAO S. P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (russian: Ракетно-космическая корпорация «Энергия» им. С. П. Королёва, Raketno-kosmicheskaya korporatsiya "Energiya" im. S. P. Korolyov ...
(RSCE) (now majority owned by RSCE), also does not currently launch commercial secondary payloads.
Standardized payload interface offerings
ESPA
The EELV Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA) is an interstage In rocketry, an adapter is a hollow cylindrical or conical segment which provides a sound aerodynamic and structural connection, either between rocket stages (referred to as an interstage adapter) or between a spacecraft and the top rocket stage (re ...
adapter ring that was originally designed for launching secondary payloads on space missions of the United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...
that use the Atlas V
Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas launch vehicle family. It was originally designed by Lockheed Martin, now being operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Lockheed Marti ...
and Delta IV
Delta IV is a group of five expendable launch systems in the Delta rocket family introduced in the early 2000s. Originally designed by Boeing's Defense, Space and Security division for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, t ...
. First used in the 2000s, the goal of ESPA was to reduce launch costs for the primary customer and enable secondary and even tertiary missions with minimal impact to the primary mission.[
]
The ESPA ring design has become a ''de facto'' standard, and is now much more widely used than the original intent and rockets.
ESPA was designed to support up to a primary payload and up to six secondary payloads of no more than each. Each secondary spacecraft is mounted radially on a diameter port and is allocated x x volume.[
]
By 2011, SpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...
was contracting for secondary payloads to be launched on their Falcon 9 rocket using a standard ESPA ring interface.[
]
SSPS
Commercial
Commercial may refer to:
* a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television)
** Radio advertisement
** Television advertisement
* (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...
derivatives of the ESPA Grande ring are being developed. Named the Spaceflight Secondary Payload System (SSPS), the system is being developed and manufactured by Andrews Space
Andrews Space was founded in 1999 by Jason Andrews and Marian Joh to be a catalyst in the commercialization, exploration and development of space. Originally named Andrews Space & Technology, the company shortened its name in 2003 to Andrews Space ...
under contract to Spaceflight Services. It includes five -diameter ports, each capable of carrying payloads weighing up . "The SSPS operates very similar to a standalone spacecraft with a flight computer, electrical power system, orbit determination
Orbit determination is the estimation of orbits of objects such as moons, planets, and spacecraft. One major application is to allow tracking newly observed asteroids and verify that they have not been previously discovered. The basic methods wer ...
capability, and payload power
Power most often refers to:
* Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work"
** Engine power, the power put out by an engine
** Electric power
* Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events
** Abusive power
Power may ...
switching."Spaceflight Secondary Payload System
, retrieved 2012-05-10.
References
{{Reflist
Spaceflight