SpaceX is scheduled to launch its uncrewed Starfall reentry capsule on the Bandwagon-5 rideshare mission before dawn on Monday. The SpaceX launch of Jellyfish will lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station during an hour-long window that opens at 6:30 a.m. EDT, with 32 payloads aboard Falcon 9.
Zachary Luppen said during the June 23 broadcast that, “SpaceX has developed a new spacecraft called Starfall, which at its core is a microgravity lab researchers and entrepreneurs can leverage to develop their products and innovations,” and added, “As we have seen demonstrated on the International Space Station, there is a huge opportunity to benefit life here on Earth through microgravity research and in-space manufacturing.” SpaceX first debuted Starfall in June, but did not disclose during that launch broadcast when the capsule would be deployed.
Bandwagon-5 from Cape Canaveral
The mission will rise from Space Launch Complex 40 on a southeasterly trajectory. Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about an hour before liftoff, as SpaceX prepares the Falcon 9 for a launch carrying 31 customer payloads alongside Starfall.
Twenty of those payloads were manifested by Exolaunch. They include four radio-frequency monitoring satellites from HawkEye 360, four communications satellites for Iceye, and six navigation satellites from Xona Space Systems. Varda Space Industries is also launching its W-Series 7 spacecraft on the Bandwagon-5 mission.
Weather Squadron forecast
The 45th Weather Squadron gave the launch window a 55 percent chance of acceptable weather. Launch weather officers said a cold front along southern Florida will bring gusty winds at liftoff that are approaching launch constraints, and they added, “Occasional coastal showers are also possible within the persistent onshore flow, although these are expected to be shallow and low-topped, with some more stratiform in nature.” They also said, “Therefore, the Cumulus Cloud Rule is a secondary concern.”
They said there is a moderate to high risk that weather at the recovery site for the first stage booster will not be acceptable. That leaves the landing attempt on A Shortall of Gravitas exposed to the same forecast that could still allow liftoff to proceed.
B1085's 19th flight
SpaceX will fly the mission with first stage booster B1085, which is making its 19th flight after previous missions for NASA's Crew-9, Fram2, Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 1, RRT-1, SXM-10, SXM-11, MTG-S1, EchoStar25 and 10 batches of Starlink satellites. Nearly nine minutes after liftoff, B1085 will target a landing on the droneship A Shortall of Gravitas.
If that attempt succeeds, it would be the 167th landing on A Shortall of Gravitas and the 672nd Falcon booster landing to date. For customers on the rideshare stack, the practical change is simple: payload separation depends on the launch going first, while the booster recovery depends on the weather holding at a second location minutes later.
