“Space Tug” Launched Jan. 3 Never Worked

Back on January 3rd, SpaceX launched their first mission of the year and the sixth launch in their Transporter series of ride-sharing launches.  Carrying 114 payloads for dozens of paying customers, perhaps the most interesting aspect was that they were carrying a handful of ‘space tugs’ developed by five separate companies.  These are being developed specifically to take small satellites launched into the same orbit on this sort of ride share mission and get them to the desired orbit.

One of these was the first flight of the tug called Orbiter from a company called Launcher.  In a Feb. 16 statement, Launcher said its Orbiter SN1 vehicle malfunctioned shortly after deployment from the Falcon 9 rocket on the Transporter-6 rideshare mission Jan. 3 when it could not properly orient itself so that its solar cells could generate power.

The vehicle communicated with a ground station on its first scheduled pass after deployment while on battery power. “We also communicated with the vehicle for the duration of expected battery life,” the company said.

However, the Hawthorne, California-based company said the spacecraft could not get into the proper attitude so that its solar cells could generate power, which it blamed on “an orientation control issue caused by a fault in our GPS antenna system.” That, in turn, kept Orbiter from deploying its satellite payloads.

There were payloads from eight different customers, four that would deploy satellites, two that would remain on the Orbiter SN1 platform and two that aren't specified. 

• TRL11
• Stanford Student Space Initiative
• Bronco Space | Cal Poly Pomona
• Innova Space
• NPC Spacemind
• Logitech Mevo
• Alba Orbital
• Beyond Burials

I think that the idea of a space tug fits really well into the lower end of the launch business; smaller satellites from smaller operations that want to put something in space.  Think college students, and small businesses.  Putting a tug like Launcher's Orbiter on a low cost launch provider like the Transporter missions seems to be another way of opening up space to a wider array of users.  Sure it's going to cost more than accepting whatever orbit the Transporter mission puts the customer's satellite, because they have to pay to launch the Orbiter tug as well, but it's going to allow them to get to an orbit they otherwise couldn't. 

Launcher seems to think they fully understand what went wrong and how to ensure it doesn't go wrong next time.  They say they're updating their guidance, navigation and control software for Orbiter vehicles with a “robust” safe mode feature and incorporating an improved battery with double the capacity.  They will also add a backup spacecraft separation system.  

The company says they still plan to fly two Orbiter vehicles later this year on the SpaceX Transporter-8 and -9 missions, currently scheduled to launch in June and October.  

Orbiter SN1 completely assembled before shipment to SpaceX to integrate for the mission. Many more views of the satellite in the video linked above (second link in second paragraph). Launcher photo.