Our client, Spaceflight Industries, has had several big announcements over the few several weeks—the latest was a major customer announcement. Spaceflight, the launch services and mission management arm of Spaceflight Industries, announced that Terra Bella will serve as a co-lead on Spaceflight’s first-ever dedicated rideshare mission, SSO-A. The mission is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in late 2017 with more than 20 payloads from 10 countries manifested aboard the rocket.
Spaceflight’s SSO-A mission is not only Spaceflight’s first dedicated rideshare mission, it is the industry’s first-ever dedicated rideshare mission. Because this is an industry first and a revolutionary approach to accessing space, people are wildly interested in its developments. We initially announced Spaceflight’s plans for a dedicated rideshare mission in October 2015 when they purchased a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for the mission. Since then, we have not shared any updates about the mission. Given that this is a highly anticipated event, we want to maintain journalists’ interest by sharing developments and progress leading up to the 2017 launch. With Spaceflight’s marketing team, we decided one of the best ways to do that was through an announcement that shared information about scheduled, contracted customers.
With a dedicated rideshare mission that is near capacity, there is a significant number of payload customers aboard this mission. Rather than listing all the contracted customers, we reasoned that announcing a co-lead payload and several secondary payloads would provide the media with a sense of the customers on the mission without overcrowding the release with the full list of customers.
Another thing we considered when making that decision was approvals. When announcing partnerships, new customers, or anything that involves multiple brands, you need to gain approval from each party included in the release. Gaining approvals from all of the customers in this situation would have been a lengthy process that would have consumed a significant amount of time.
As always, we developed a targeted, yet comprehensive press list and delivered the release to those contacts. We also placed the release on the wire to maximize awareness and reach. We’re pleased to report that the announcement garnered 13 pieces of coverage in a number of top industry publications and a local broadcast segment. Below is a list of the coverage:
- Spaceflight signs up Google’s Terra Bella for satellite launch on SpaceX rocket—GeekWire, 10/11/16
- Terra Bella and Spaceflight Ind. contract SpaceX for Falcon 9 Launch in 2017—NewSpace Global, 10/11/16
- Terra Bella & Spaceflight Industries Sign The Big Bird To Launch Small Imaging Satellites—SatNews, 10/11/16
- Terra Bella and Spaceflight Industries Sign Agreement for Falcon 9 Launch for Small Imaging Satellites—Parabolic Arc, 10/11/16
- Spaceflight to launch Terra Bella satellites on Falcon 9 mission—SpaceNews, 10/11/16
- SpeedNews Defense & Space—Aviation Week, 10/12/16
- Spaceflight to launch Terra Bella satellite on Falcon 9 rocket—Aerospace Technology, 10/12/16
- Spaceflight Industries Signs Satellite Launch Deal With Google’s Terra Bella—Northwest Innovation, 10/12/16
- SpaceX to Launch Terra Bella Satellites Through Spaceflight Industries—Via Satellite, 10/12/16
- Spaceflight to Launch Terra Bella Satellites on Falcon 9 Mission—Florida Space Report, 10/12/16
- Terra Bella and Spaceflight Industries to launch small imaging satellites—Space Daily, 10/13/16
- Seattle company sends satellites into orbit—KING 5, 10/14/16
- Seattle Week in Review: Read It While You Still Can—Xconomy, 10/14/16