SpaceX successfully completed its third Falcon 9 rocket launch in less than 48 hours with a rideshare mission carrying payloads to a mid-inclination orbit. The Bandwagon-3 mission, which took off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 8:48 p.m. EDT, included the fourth synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite for South Korea’s Korea 425 Project constellation.
The SAR satellite is part of a series of satellites designed to provide all-weather temperature and humidity profiles. The mission also carried Atmos Space Cargo’s Phoenix capsule, which will attempt to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere in two orbits before making its final descent. This will be the first private company in Europe to receive authorization for a space re-entry mission.
Onboard the spacecraft are four payloads from three customers: Germany, Japan, and the UK. The Phoenix 1 spacecraft is designed to gather data about the capsule’s inflatable heat shield and has three core objectives: collecting in-flight data, gathering scientific data, and deploying and stabilizing the Inflatable Heat Shield during atmospheric re-entry.
The mission’s trajectory has been changed due to a need for adjustments in ground stations. The new trajectory will result in a splashdown about 2,000 km off the coast of Brazil in the Atlantic Ocean. Atmos Space Cargo will attempt to compensate for the loss of traditional communication during the re-entry phase by conducting an air-to-air reconnaissance mission.
Atmos expects that the increased thermal stress and aerodynamic forces may affect the capsule structure and heat shield, but all flight data will inform their system analysis and optimization for Phoenix 2. The company has received €13.1 million in funding from the European Innovation Council to support the development of the Phoenix 2 spacecraft.
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2025/04/21/live-coverage-spacex-to-launch-bandwagon-3-rideshare-mission-on-falcon-9-rocket-from-cape-canaveral