A SpaceX Falcon 9 on Saturday, lifted off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base at 1134 UTC, on the company's Bandwagon-2 rideshare mission carrying 30 payloads from its various customers.
The Falcon 9 first stage, which was making its 21st flight, successfully landed back at Landing Zone 4(LZ-4) 8 minutes and 15 seconds after liftoff. The rocket's second stage meanwhile, continued spaceward, deploying the payloads into a mid-inclination orbit, with some satellites being released at an altitude of 510 km and others at 570 km.
The Bandwagon-2 mission is part of SpaceX’s efforts to provide frequent launch opportunities to small satellite operators.
"While our Transporter rideshare missions launch to a sun synchronous orbit (SSO), Bandwagon missions can accommodate even more smallsats looking for rides to orbit, launching to a mid-inclination orbit and filling the gaps for our customers that wish to expand their coverage or complete unique objectives not possible with SSO," SpaceX explained on X.
Bandwagon-2 carried payloads from South Korea's Agency for Defense Development as well as "Arrow Science and Technology, Exolaunch, HawkEye 360, Maverick Space Systems, Sidus Space, Tomorrow Companies Inc., True Anomaly and Think Orbital," SpaceX wrote in a mission description.