At the end of last year, our client Spaceflight, the leading mission management and launch service provider, launched the largest number of satellites ever from a U.S.-based launch vehicle – a historic achievement that was years in the making.
The first-of-its-kind mission, named SSO-A for the orbit it was launching to, was dedicated to smallsats. Onboard were 64 smallsats from 34 organizations with varying missions representing 17 different countries. It included satellites from commercial organizations tasked to take images of the Earth, spacecraft from universities conducting research on orbit, payloads serving as art displays, and even a satellite built by middle-school students designed to test bacteria in the conditions of space. (Spaceflight shared more about their customers here.)
Successfully launching 64 satellites is no easy task. Not only did the team need to meticulously address each satellite’s needs, they also had to orchestrate a complex integration process and develop a deployment sequence that would enable each satellite to deploy on orbit. On Dec. 3, 2018, Spaceflight executed its historic mission successfully.
In order to promote this incredible accomplishment, Communiqué PR and Spaceflight’s marketing team began building momentum around the launch in August 2018, distributing a press release that provided facts and stats about the mission and customers onboard. This helped set the stage and provide the media foundational information about the launch.
As the mission approached, we scheduled and hosted a press tour to meet with prominent reporters who we believed would be interested in learning more about this mission. We viewed the in-person meetings as an opportunity to brief the reporters on how Spaceflight makes space more accessible, as well as explain how what this mission meant to the industry. We stopped in Washington D.C., New York and San Francisco to meet with reporters from The New York Times, CNN, CNBC, Quartz and more. Additionally, we hosted phone calls with many reporters who were unavailable during the times we were in town.
Finally, we distributed a press release following the launch confirming its success and emphasizing Spaceflight’s role in the mission. Not surprisingly, due to the mission’s impact on the industry and its significance, there was substantial coverage about its success. Below, we’ve included a handful of articles that resulted from the mission and its promotion.
Spaceflight SSO-A Coverage
- Tech Crunch, Spaceflight’s 64-satellite rideshare launch takes off tomorrow on a Falcon 9, 11/27/18
- Quartz, The SpaceX rocket contains the hopes and dreams of the space sector, 12/3/18
- CBSNews, SpaceX launches 64 “smallsats” in record flight, 12/3/18
- Forbes, This SpaceX Launch Will Send Over 60 Satellites Into Orbit, 12/3/18
- CNBC, SpaceX breaks records with ‘SmallSat Express’ launch, including flying and landing the same rocket 3 times, 12/3/18
- Reuters, SpaceX launches biggest U.S. ‘rideshare’ mission with 64 satellites, 12/3/18
- The Verge, Watch SpaceX launch its biggest crop of satellites yet with a twice-used rocket, 12/3/18
- Business Insider, Watch live as SpaceX launches a fleet of more than 5 dozen satellites on a twice-used rocket, 12/3/18
- SpaceNews, SpaceX launches all-smallsat Falcon 9 mission, 12/3/18
- Bloomberg, Musk’s SpaceX Launches More Than 60 Small Satellites Into Orbit, 12/3/18
- Geekwire, Third time’s the charm: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launches a record 64 satellites for Spaceflight, 12/3/18
- Space.com, Watch SpaceX Launch 64 Satellites Into Orbit on a Really Used Rocket Today!, 12/3/18
- Aviation Week, SpaceX Falcon Rocket Delivers 64 Smallsats Into Orbit, 12/3/18
- WIRED, THE SPACEX ‘CLOWN CAR’ LAUNCH ACTUALLY WORKED—HERE’S HOW, 12/7/18
Congratulations to the entire Spaceflight team!
