Planet’s First Launch of 2020: 26 SuperDoves on a Vega
Planet imagery of the Vega launch pad in French Guiana © 2020, Planet Labs Inc. All Rights Reserved.
NewsPlanet launches every three to six months to keep its constellation of Earth imaging satellites replenished and flying the latest and greatest technologies. Following on the heels of the successful launch of Flock 4p in November of 2019, Planet’s first launch of 2020 will be on Arianespace’s European-made Vega rocket, a first for the Doves. The 26 SuperDoves, Flock 4v, are scheduled for lift-off on March 23, 2020 from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana. These 26 Flock 4v SuperDoves will be split into two batches on the same launch: 14 of them will be housed inside and deployed from ISL’s QuadPack deployers and the remaining 12 will be deployed from D-Orbit’s InOrbit Now (ION) freeflying deployment platform. Over 200 Dove satellites have successfully deployed from ISL’s trusty QuadPack system. This will be the first flight of D-Orbit’s ION system, and those satellites will be deployed over a handful of weeks. D-Orbit will also be verifying key technologies on their ION platform that will eventually enable future versions to act as a “space tug,” with the capability to perform orbit adjustments or accelerate phasing for the satellites it carries. [caption id="attachment_144549" align="aligncenter" width="1602"]
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