SpaceX’s rideshare launch kicks off milestone mission for Starfish Space’s first Otter space vehicle

What happened

Falcon 9 rocket launches 130 payloads (what a rocket is carrying), including Starfish's flagship spacecraft as well as Cowboy Space's first satellite and a NASA astrophysics probe. The Otter spacecraft was among 130 payloads launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX is a space company based in Hawthorne, and its products and services include Falcon.

Other payloads on the satellite rideshare mission, known as Transporter-18, included Cowboy Space’s first power-beaming satellite, a prototype for Google’s AI data-center constellation, and a NASA-funded probe that will track the energy released by galaxies and supernovas. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket rises from its California launch pad, sending 130 payloads into orbit.

Otter is roughly the size of a kitchen oven, with solar arrays that were folded up for launch. Today’s liftoff through surface-level fog — and the return of the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster to a nearby landing pad — proceeded like clockwork.