US Patent Issued to Maxar Space on April 29 for "Stacked spacecraft launch and orbit raising" (California, Florida Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,286,243, issued on April 29, was assigned to Maxar Space LLC (Palo Alto, Calif.).

"Stacked spacecraft launch and orbit raising" was invented by Gordon Chun Kong Wu (Melbourne, Fla.), David Marlow (Redwood City, Calif.) and Jeff Aaron Baldwin (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Technology for orbit raising of multiple spacecraft launched with a single launch vehicle. Two or more spacecraft are configured in a stacked launch configuration in which a lower spacecraft is mechanically coupled with a payload adapter of a launch vehicle with one or more upper spacecraft above the lower spacecraft. Propellant that is stored in the l...