SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 rocket on the Bandwagon-4 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Nov. 2, at 0509 UTC, carrying 18 payloads into low Earth orbit. The primary payload, referred to as the "cake topper," was the fifth 425 Korea satellite from South Korea’s Agency for Defense Development (ADD), which is part of their Project 425 program.

The Falcon 9’s first stage booster, B1091, completed its third flight and successfully returned to Earth approximately eight minutes after liftoff, landing at Cape Canaveral’s Landing Zone-2. This marked the 528th Falcon 9 booster landing to date and the 15th landing at LZ-2, which is expected to be retired soon as SpaceX transitions to a new landing zone at pad 40.

The upper stage continued into orbit and deployed the 18 payloads over a period of about an hour, beginning with the separation of ADD’s Korea 435 satellite around 12 minutes after liftoff.

The mission marked the fourth in SpaceX's Bandwagon series, designed for mid-inclination orbits, and was SpaceX's 140th Falcon 9 launch of 2025.

"While our Transporter rideshare missions launch to a sun synchronous orbit, Bandwagon missions launch to a mid-inclination orbit, filling the gaps for customers that wish to expand their coverage or complete unique objectives not possible with SSO," SpaceX wrote on X.

Among the 18 payloads was Haven Demo, an experimental precursor satellite developed by California-based Vast Space for its planned Haven-1 private space station. Haven Demo is intended to test critical systems for Haven-1, including propulsion, flight computers, and navigation software, serving as the first step in Vast’s iterative approach to building next-generation space stations.

If successful, Haven-1 is scheduled to be launched into low Earth orbit (LEO) on a Falcon 9 rocket as early as the second quarter of 2026, potentially making it the first independent private space station in human history  Haven-1 is designed to be a human-centric space station capable of hosting up to four astronauts and serving as an innovation lab for both private and government missions.

"The first step in our iterative approach towards building next-generation space stations, Haven Demo will test critical systems for Haven-1, including propulsion, flight computers and navigation software," Vast wrote in a description of the satellite.

The other 16 payloads included satellites from Berlin-based Exolaunch, Turkey’s Fergani Space, weather forecasting company Tomorrow Companies, and Starcloud, a company planning to build data centers in space. Notably, Starcloud’s satellite carried an NVIDIA H100 GPU, marking a significant step in advancing space-based computing.

As its name suggests, Bandwagon-4 was the fourth mission in SpaceX's Bandwagon series to lift off. The company also operates another rideshare program called Transporter, which has 14 launches to its name to date.

Bandwagon-4 was the 140th Falcon 9 launch of 2025 already. More than 70% of the rocket's missions this year have been dedicated to building out Starlink, SpaceX's ever-growing broadband megaconstellation.

The U.S. President Donald Trump, Saturday, declared Nigeria a "Country of Particular Concern" on religious freedom grounds, citing an "existential threat" to Christianity and accusing radical Islamists of a "mass slaughter" of Christians, prompting a series of escalating threats including the potential suspension of all U.S. aid and military action.

The conflict in Nigeria involves multiple Islamist actors, including Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and Fulani herder militias, with barbaric and gruesome violence often targeting Christians, which has lead to the deaths of thousands particularly in the Middle Belt region.

Observers and analysts note that while Christians are the main victims of violence and religious differences play a major part, the conflict also involves land and ethnic disputes resulting in Muslim casualties. Groups like Boko Haram and ISWAP also often target government and security forces.

The situation has drawn international attention, with Pope Leo XIV and the U.S. State Department condemning recent massacres, and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz describing the violence as a "crisis of religious genocide."

In a Truth Social post Saturday, Trump instructed the U.S. Department of War to prepare for "possible action," warning of a "fast, vicious, and sweet" military response if Nigeria fails to protect its Christian population, and referred to Nigeria as a "disgraced country." He directed U.S. Representatives Riley Moore and Tom Cole, along with the House Appropriations Committee, to investigate the situation and report back to him.

Trump wrote, "Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a 'COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN' — But that is the least of it. When Christians, or any such group, is slaughtered like is happening in Nigeria (3,100 versus 4,476 Worldwide), something must be done! I am asking Congressman Riley Moore, together with Chairman Tom Cole and the House Appropriations Committee, to immediately look into this matter, and report back to me. The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other Countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World! DONALD J. TRUMP,
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA."

The president added in another post, "If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, 'guns-a-blazing,' to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities. I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians! WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!"

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu pushed back against the claims, asserting that Nigeria is a democracy with constitutional guarantees for religious liberty and that the characterization of the country as religiously intolerant "does not reflect our national reality." He rejected the allegations as "misleading" and emphasized commitment to religious freedom, while welcoming U.S. assistance only if it respects Nigeria's territorial integrity.

The U.S. War Secretary, Pete Hegseth, responded to Trump's post by affirming that the Department of War was preparing for action, stating that the U.S. would "kill the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities" if Nigeria fails to protect Christians.

The U.S. designation could lead to sanctions, including a ban on non-humanitarian aid, though the move does not automatically trigger penalties.