Ramona Adams
An Orbital ATK-built Cygnus spacecraft has deployed four small satellites from Spire Global above the International Space Station’s orbit as part of a secondary mission, Space News reported Saturday.
Jeff Foust writes the spacecraft, nicknamed S.S. Alan Poindexter, launched four Lemur-2 satellites to help Spire build a constellation of cubesats designed to collect weather and ship tracking data.
S.S. Alan Poindexter left the ISS Nov. 21 after a commercial resupply mission to perform two secondary missions prior to the spacecraft’s scheduled re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.
Jenny Barna, Spire’s launch manager, said the company aims to launch more than 70 satellites aboard eight different vehicles over the next year.
Barna added Spire plans to deploy CubeSats through Orbital ATK’s OA-7 Cygnus mission in March 2017, according to the report.
