Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The Transporter 5 mission will launch 59 small payloads from customers around the world. Follow us on Twitter.

Fifty-nine small satellites and hosted experiments launched Wednesday at 2:35 p.m. EDT (1835 GMT) from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The reusable Falcon booster returned to Florida’s Space Coast for landing about eight-and-a-half minutes later. The mission was the fifth for SpaceX’s Transporter smallsat rideshare program.

Weather conditions were favorable for launch from Cape Canaveral. Liftoff occurred eight minutes later than originally planned to allow more time to complete thermal testing for the Falcon 9’s payload deployment sequence.

The Falcon 9 rocket headed southeast from Cape Canaveral, then veered south along Florida’s east coast to place the mission’s 59 payloads into polar orbit. The first stage fired its nine Merlin engines for 2 minutes, 16 seconds, then separated from the Falcon upper stage to begin its return to Florida.

The first stage pulsed cold gas nitrogen thrusters to flip around and fly tail-first, then ignited three of the Merlin engines for a boost-back burn at the edge of space to reverse course and head back to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The booster extended titanium grid fins to help steer the rocket back through the atmosphere, then fired three of its engines again for a re-entry burn. After slowing to a velocity less than the speed of sound, the rocket fired its center engine for a final braking maneuver just before a vertical touchdown on four legs at Landing Zone 1, less than 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the launch pad.

The first stage on Wednesday’s mission — tail number B1061 — made its eighth launch and landing. It debuted in November 2020 on a NASA crew mission carrying four astronauts to space, then launched another four astronauts on a crew flight in April 2021.

SpaceX launched the booster again last June with a radio broadcasting satellite for SiriusXM, last August with a Dragon cargo capsule heading to the International Space Station, and in December with a NASA X-ray astronomy satellite. The booster has now launched three times this year: Feb. 3 with 49 Starlink internet satellites, April 1 with the Transporter 4 rideshare mission, and Wednesday on the Transporter 5 mission.

While the booster returned to Cape Canaveral after Wednesday’s liftoff, the Falcon 9’s second stage engine burned about six minutes to reach a preliminary parking orbit.

After engine cutoff, a self-contained payload from Nanoracks inside a box mounted on the upper stage was programmed to begin a 10-minute experiment to demonstrate metal cutting in orbit. The Outpost Mars Demo-1 experiment included three small coupons of corrosion resistant steel, which a robotic arm will attempt to cut using friction milling technology.

Nanoracks says the experiment is a first step in demonstrating metalworks in orbit, which could lead to advancements in space manufacturing and salvaging, including the conversion of used launch vehicle upper stages into orbiting habitats and research platforms.

The metal cutting experiment was expected to complete about 20 minutes after launch, then was supposed to downlink data and imagery to scientists through ground receiving stations. Nanoracks expected to know the results of the experiment late Wednesday or Thursday.

The upper stage’s work wasn’t finished. Another engine firing occurred 55 minutes into the flight to place the satellite payloads into a near-circular orbit at an altitude of about 326 miles (525 kilometers), and an inclination of 97.5 degrees to the equator.

Then the Falcon 9 began releasing the rest of its commercial and government payloads.

The satellite passengers on the Transporter 5 mission included the first Vigoride orbital transfer vehicle built by a startup named Momentus, which will demonstrate a novel water-based propulsion system.

There was also a Sherpa transfer vehicle from Spaceflight, a company that specializes in brokering rides to space for small satellites, with its own roster of payloads. Another orbital transfer vehicle from the Italian company D-Orbit also separated from the Falcon 9 upper stage to conduct orbital maneuvers before releasing multiple commercial smallsats.

Other payloads on the Transporter 5 mission included five commercial ICEYE radar observation satellites, each nearly 200 pounds (100 kilograms) in mass. There were four small optical Earth-imaging satellites from the Argentine company Satellogic, growing its constellation to 26 operational spacecraft. The Transporter 5 mission launched three microsats from the Canadian company GHGSat, which is deploying a fleet of small satellites to monitor global greenhouse gas emissions.

There were also three formation-flying spacecraft on the Transporter 5 launch for HawkEye 360, a U.S. company building a satellite constellation to detect and locate the source of terrestrial radio signals. HawkEye 360 said earlier this year its RF monitoring satellites detected GPS interference in Ukraine as Russian military forces invaded the country.

Umbra, a startup based in Santa Barbara, California, launched its third radar remote sensing satellite on the Transporter 5 mission. Another California-based company, GeoOptics, also launched two small satellites for its commercial weather monitoring constellation.

There were five Lemur 2 CubeSats on-board from Spire Global to track weather, aviation and maritime activity from space, support data relay services, host an optical payload, and test radio frequency detection technology for the UK Ministry of Defense.

The U.S. military’s Missile Defense Agency had two small tech demo spacecraft on the Transporter 5 mission to test inter-satellite communications links.

NASA had two CubeSat missions launching on the Transporter 5 mission.

One of the CubeSats is named PTD 3, developed at NASA’s Ames Research Center to host a laser communication experiment from MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory. The Terabyte Infrared Delivery, or TBIRD, experiment will test laser data links between a small satellite and a ground station, helping prove technology that could allow satellite networks to transmit vast volumes of data much faster than through conventional radio systems.

The other NASA payload on the Transporter 5 launch was the CubeSat Proximity Operations Demonstration, which will demonstrate rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking using two shoebox-sized CubeSats.

One of the CubeSats on the Transporter 5 mission also carried the cremated remains of 47 people, part of a commercial memorial service provided by Celestis.

Read our story on the Nanoracks metal cutting experiment on the Transporter 5 launch.

PAYLOAD: 59 microsatellites, CubeSats, orbital transfer vehicles, and hosted payloads

LAUNCH SITE: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida

LAUNCH TIME: 2:35:00 p.m. EDT (1835:00 GMT)

WEATHER FORECAST: 80% probability of acceptable weather

BOOSTER RECOVERY: Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

LAUNCH AZIMUTH: South-southeast, then south

TARGET ORBIT: Approximately 326 miles (525 kilometers), 97.5 degrees inclination

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

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