In Calif. launch, Space X sends up Transporter-14 with satellites, human DNA
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(Photo credit: Joe Marino/UPI)
June 23 (UPI) -- SpaceX on Monday launched from California a Transporter-14 rideshare mission with several satellites and human DNA into low-Earth orbit.
The Falcon 9 rocket launched from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base at 2:18 p.m. PDT.
It was the 26th flight for the first-stage booster, including 15 Starlink missions.
About 8 1/2 minutes after liftoff, the booster landed on the "Of Course I Still Love You" droneship stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
The flight carried 70 payloads, including cubesats, microsats and orbital transfer vehicles carrying three payloads to be deployed at a later time.
A German Company, Exolaunch, had a payload carrying 45 satellites of deployment hardware. That is the company's largest ever deployment, including a satellite that is used to study water quality from space, and an Earth observation satellite will be used to look over cloudy conditions.
Exolaunch CEO Robert Sproles said that SpaceX's rideshare program is "industry enabling."
"It gives an opportunity to really pressure test not only our hardware, but all of our systems and missions management to make this a very smooth process for our customers so that they have a really easy time," Sproles said.
Exolaunch's customers are from the United States, Britain, Lithuania, Finland, Belgium, Germany, Australia, Canada, South Korea, France, Japan, Spain, Norway, Italy, and Greece.
Celetsis, a Houston-based company behind space-burial services, announced the flight would also have a payload of 150 flight capsules with DNA and human remains.
The payload from Celetsis will reach low Earth orbit and perform two or three circuits around before re-entering the atmosphere. The capsules were then to be recovered from the Pacific Ocean and returned to the clients.
"Celestis is pleased to offer a new type of Earth Rise mission, thanks to The Exploration Company," the company's co-founder and CEO Charles Chafer, said in a statement. "Our participants' capsules will orbit the Earth and return via the Mission Possible capsule, creating a spectacular liftoff and recovery experience."
Transporter was initially set to launch Sunday but was scrubbed due to unfavorable weather.
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