SpaceX’s Falcon 9 30 satellites were launched Saturday for the second dedicated rideshare mission in mid-inclination orbit.
Under the Bandwagon-2 mission, Falcon 9 took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 3:34 am local time. space newsThe Falcon 9’s first stage landed back at the launch site eight minutes and 15 seconds after liftoff, just as the second stage disengaged.
The largest of the 30 payloads on the Bandwagon-2 mission was the third “425 Project” reconnaissance satellite for the South Korean military, the outlet reported. The first satellite of its kind was launched a year ago on a Falcon 9 and the second was launched on the Bandwagon-1 mission in April.
Other customers at the launch included Hawkeye 360, which deployed three satellites, called Cluster 11, for radio-frequency intelligence. The company said the satellites will feature advanced payloads to receive data and transmitter To relay it to ground stations.
Another customer is Finnish company Iceye, which launched two synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites on Bandwagon-2 that are capable of producing radar imagery at a resolution of 25 centimeters.
with other companies Spacecraft on Bandwagon-2 These include Sidus Space, Tomorrow.io, True Anomaly and Think Orbital.
SpaceX announced the Bandwagon line of rideshare missions last year to complement its Transporter series of rideshare missions dedicated to sun-synchronous orbits.
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The company said it offered the mid-inclination missions because they were the most requested orbits after sun synchronous ones. The company said it will complete two Bandwagon missions this year and two additional missions next year.