First-ever 'crypto satellite' launched into orbit by SpaceX

May 25th saw the launch of the SpaceX's Transporter-5 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS), at 18:35 GMT.

The first stage of the Falcon 9 used in the mission returned to land intact after delivering the Crypto-1 satellite to low Earth orbit (LEO) for Cryptosat, a U.S. satellite startup. The satellite is about the size of a coffee mug, assembled with readily available parts, and was launched alongside 58 other spacecraft, including "CubeSats, microsats, non-deploying hosted payloads, and orbital transfer vehicles."

Up in orbit, the satellite is unreachable by bad actors to tamper with, but also more difficult to work with in case something goes wrong compared to something on Earth where "you just open a terminal and debug it," as noted by Cryptosat's co-founder Yan Michalevsky. Crypto-1 will enable secure cryptography for the blockchain in space and potentially facilitate the deployment of an entire space-based blockchain.

"SpaceX launched a bunch of satellites, each one of them is doing something else. It doesn't matter for our service. We are hoping to use our satellite to provide cryptographic services for our customers here on Earth, which won't interfere with the other satellites at all," said Yonatan Winetraub, the co-founder of Cryptosat.

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