It was announced on 11 October, that Spaceflight Industries had signed Google-owned Terra Bella as the co-lead on their “2017 Sun Synch Express” (SSO-A) mission. The SSO-A mission will utilise one of Spaceflight’s SHERPA Tugs to transport over 20 payloads into Sun-synchronous orbit in late 2017. The mission dates back to the end-September 2015 when Spaceflight contracted with SpaceX, for a dedicated SHERPA mission on-board a Falcon 9 vehicle.
The two companies declined to state exactly how many of Terra Bella’s SkySats would be riding the SHERPA but did confirm that, “it’s more than one”. What is known however, is following Terra Bella’s two construction orders with fellow Californian company, and spacecraft manufacturer, SSL, the company has a surplus of eight satellites whose status, in regards to launch contracts, is yet to be revealed.
