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WASHINGTON — SpaceX launched the fourth in its series of rideshare missions to mid-inclination orbits Nov. 2, carrying payloads that included technology demonstration satellites for space stations and orbital data centers.
A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 1:09 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on the mission, called Bandwagon-4 by SpaceX. The rocket deployed all its payloads into low Earth orbit about 75 minutes after liftoff.
Bandwagon-4 is the fourth in a series of SpaceX rideshare missions to mid-inclination orbits, rather than the sun-synchronous orbits used for its Transporter rideshare launches. SpaceX announced the Bandwagon series in 2023 to serve customers seeking mid-inclination orbits, demand for which trails only that for sun-synchronous orbits.
As with previous Bandwagon missions, the largest payload on Bandwagon-4 was a reconnaissance satellite for South Korea’s Project 425 program. South Korea’s defense ministry said the satellite, like the three previous ones, carries a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) payload.
Bandwagon-4 carried 17 other satellites. Among them was Haven-Demo, a 500-kilogram spacecraft built by commercial space station developer Vast to test key technologies for its future stations, including Haven-1, which is scheduled to launch next year.
“It’s going to be testing out key systems related to Haven-1,” said Rich Leshner, vice president of government relations at Vast, during an Oct. 29 panel at the American Astronautical Society’s von Braun Space Exploration Symposium.
Those technologies include flight computers, avionics, communications systems, thrusters and solar arrays.
“We get a chance to test that at a relatively low investment,” said Max Haot, chief executive of Vast, at the Global Aerospace Summit in September. He estimated the cost of Haven-Demo at $10 million, compared to $1 billion for Haven-1.
Bandwagon-4 included a mix of new and returning customers. Tomorrow.io, which operates a constellation of commercial weather satellites, flew two spacecraft on the mission. Iceye, which operates SAR satellites, launched three satellites that will be part of the “Foresight Constellation” for Emirati company Space42.
One newcomer was Starcloud, which flew its Starcloud-1 satellite on Bandwagon-4. The company aims to develop data centers in orbit.
“It is the first time that anyone has tried to launch an AI data center to space,” Philip Johnston, chief executive and co-founder of Starcloud, said of Starcloud-1 in a presentation at an investment conference in Saudi Arabia Oct. 30. The 60-kilogram spacecraft carries an advanced Nvidia processor and will run artificial intelligence models, including a version of Google’s Gemini, he said.
Starcloud announced Oct. 30 that it will work with another startup, Rendezvous Robotics, to study how to use self-assembling spacecraft technology developed by Rendezvous on future Starcloud missions. Starcloud envisions future spacecraft requiring solar panels and radiators several kilometers long.
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