Northwest Aerospace News PNAA 2021 ADVANCE | Page 14

An image of the clean room ( facility in Auburn ) that features the SSO-A stack

The Sherpa-FX vehicle is the debut vehicle of the Sherpa-NG program . In its first planned mission , it will carry 14 customer spacecraft , including two hosted payloads . Coming this year is the Sherpa-LTC : “ Go Fast ,” “ Designed with launch vehicle flexibility as a requirement , the Sherpa-LTC features a high thrust , bi-propellant , green propulsion subsystem integrated seamlessly within the available space of the original free flyer .” This version features a chemical propulsion system via a Benchmark Space Systems ( https :// www . benchmarkspacesystems . com /).

Roberts said , “ It is light and uses conventional chemical propulsion , hence ‘ LTC ,’ and has a very high thrust .”
The next Sherpa vehicle in the line-up is the Sherpa-LTE : “ Go Far ” which “ has the capability to deliver spacecraft to GEO , Cislunar , or Earth-escape orbits ,” said the company website . Roberts said , “ It has been a team effort ,” to develop the Sherpa vehicles , which he said started in 2014 and has utilized the talents of all Spaceflight ’ s 36 employees in development . He elaborated that there were many roles in executing this project , including design and construction , customer requirements , legal research regarding licensing , and export control to name a few roles . “ We have all worked on Sherpa in one way or another ,” he said .
There are two main types of satellites that can be booked on a Spaceflight launch — cubesat or microsat .
14 NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS