Sherpa-FX
Spaceflight Inc
Passive free-flying CubeSat deployer for up to 16 spacecraft from a single ESPA port; no propulsion. First flight Jan 2021.
Technical specifications
- Vehicle type
- Passive free-flyer (no propulsion, no attitude control)
- Port interface
- 24" ESPA standard
- Maximum payload capacity
- 300 kg (reconfigurable)
- Max deployable spacecraft
- Up to 16 customer spacecraft
- Max CubeSat capacity
- Up to 32 × 3U CubeSats (with deployers)
- Propulsion
- None
- Attitude control
- None
- Communications
- 1-way sequencer
- Power
- Solar cells + batteries
- First flight
- January 24, 2021 (SpaceX Transporter-1)
- Second flight
- June 30, 2021 (SpaceX Transporter-2)
About
Sherpa-FX is a passive free-flying satellite deployer that enables multiple small satellites to deploy from a single 24″ ESPA port. The first vehicle of Spaceflight’s Sherpa Next Generation (Sherpa-NG) program, Sherpa-FX carries no propulsion or attitude control system, operating purely as a deployment platform.
A single Sherpa-FX can accommodate up to 16 customer spacecraft (or up to 32 3U CubeSats when using deployers). It includes a sequencer for managing deployment timing and 1-way communications for deployment confirmation. Power is provided by onboard solar cells and batteries.
Sherpa-FX is fully reconfigurable to accommodate payloads up to 300 kg total. First flight was January 24, 2021 aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 (Transporter-1); second flight was June 30, 2021 (Transporter-2).
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.
