WORLDTECHSpaceX schedules Starfall capsule and 31 customer payloads on Bandwagon-5 launch
SpaceX plans to fly its uncrewed Starfall reentry capsule on the Bandwagon-5 rideshare mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, with liftoff scheduled before dawn on Monday, according to Spaceflight Now, which is providing live coverage.
Launch window and weather outlook
Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is set for a one-hour window opening at 6:30 a.m. The 45th Weather Squadron puts the chance of acceptable weather during that window at 55 percent. Its forecast describes a cold front along southern Florida bringing gusty winds at liftoff that are near the limits for launch.
There is also a moderate to high risk that conditions at the recovery site for the first stage booster will not be acceptable. Launch weather officers wrote in their prelaunch forecast that occasional coastal showers are possible within the persistent onshore flow, though these are expected to be shallow, low-topped and partly stratiform.
Payloads and customers on board
The Bandwagon-5 mission carries 32 payloads, and 31 of them are customer payloads to be deployed alongside the Starfall capsule. Exolaunch, a multinational mission management company, manifested 20 of the remaining payloads.
Among them are four radio-frequency monitoring satellites from HawkEye 360 of Virginia, four communications satellites for the Finnish micro satellite company Iceye, and six navigation satellites from Xona Space Systems of California.
Starfall's second flight
SpaceX first unveiled the Starfall reentry capsule in June. On that mission the company kept its plans tightly guarded, disclosing that the spacecraft was aboard the rocket only shortly before flight. Even then it shared just a rendering of the vehicle, and during its launch broadcast it did not say when the capsule would be deployed.
This flight will be the second launch of the uncrewed capsule and the 19th flight for the Falcon 9 vehicle, following earlier missions including NASA's Crew-9 and Firefly's Blue Ghost Mission 1.
Booster recovery at stake
A successful landing of the first stage would be the 167th on this vessel and the 672nd Falcon booster landing to date. SpaceX is a space company based in Hawthorne, California.
Open questions
- Will weather at the booster recovery site allow a landing?
- Will the launch proceed within the 6:30 a.m. window given the forecast gusty winds?