“Falcon 9 Soars: SpaceX Ignites Bandwagon-2 Rideshare Voyage from California”

Update 6:52 a.m. (1152 UTC): The Falcon 9 booster successfully landed at Landing Zone 4.

SpaceX executed its second mid-inclination rideshare mission in the early hours of Saturday, departing from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

This mission occurred more than six months after Bandwagon-1 departed from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in April. The Falcon 9 rocket ascended from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at 3:34 a.m. PST (6:34 a.m. EST, 1134 UTC).



The Falcon 9 first stage booster designated for this flight, tail number B1071 in the SpaceX inventory, embarked on its 21st mission. It had previously facilitated the launches of three assignments for the National Reconnaissance Office, two Transporter rideshare missions, and NASA’s SWOT payload.

Just over eight minutes after liftoff, B1071 returned to touch down at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4). This marked the 22nd successful booster landing at LZ-4 and the 386th booster landing overall.

There are 30 payloads on board the Bandwagon-2 mission, which includes satellites from Sidus Space, Maverick Space Systems, Exolaunch, and HawkEye 360.