2026-10-20
Falcon 9 set to launch Bandwagon-5 rideshare mission from Florida
By Ghostwriter KIERO SWISS · based on reporting by NASASpaceflight
According to NASASpaceflight, SpaceX's Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch the Bandwagon-5 rideshare mission with 32 payloads on Tuesday, Oct. 20, delayed one day by unfavorable recovery weather. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida has a one-hour window opening at 6:30 AM EDT on a southeasterly trajectory to low-Earth orbit.
The flight includes the second Starfall capsule, a 3.1-meter diameter reentry vehicle mounted atop the stack. The first-stage booster, on its 19th flight, will be recovered by the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. Deployment begins at T+57:18 minutes, with the final Starfall release at T+02:48:28 hours.
Exolaunch manifests 22 satellites including an orbital transfer vehicle, four navigation satellites for a commercial positioning constellation, multiple synthetic aperture radar satellites, an optical imager, a maneuverable ESPA-class bus, and a pharmaceutical return capsule carrying a cancer drug to test microgravity crystallization effects.
Source
Falcon 9 set to launch Bandwagon-5 rideshare mission from Florida — NASASpaceflight