SpaceX successfully launches Bandwagon-3 rideshare mission

SpaceX continued its cadence of rideshare missions last night, successfully launching its Falcon 9 rocket on the Bandwagon-3 mission, carrying a diverse manifest of satellites, including a pioneering European reentry capsule.

Liftoff occurred from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on April 21st at 8:48 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (0048 GMT on April 22nd).  

Headlining the mission’s payload roster is Phoenix 1, an innovative reentry capsule developed by the German aerospace company Atmos Space Cargo. This mission marks a significant milestone, representing the first-ever reentry attempt conducted by a European commercial entity, according to Atmos.

Phoenix 1 is designed for a short orbital journey; following approximately one circuit of the Earth, it is scheduled to perform a controlled reentry and splash down in the Atlantic Ocean, roughly 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) off the coast of Brazil.  

The primary goal of this flight is to validate key technologies for the Phoenix system, most notably its inflatable heat shield. Successful recovery of the capsule will demonstrate its capability to safely return valuable cargo from orbit back to Earth. Atmos Space Cargo envisions leveraging this technology for a range of future applications.

“Our mission is to revolutionize space logistics, enabling groundbreaking advancements in microgravity research, in-orbit manufacturing, defense applications and life sciences,” states the company’s website.  

As a dedicated rideshare flight, Bandwagon-3 accommodated multiple customers. Alongside Phoenix 1, the Falcon 9 deployed 425Sat-3, a satellite destined for operation by South Korea’s Agency for Defense Development, and Tomorrow-S7, a satellite for the weather intelligence provider Tomorrow Companies Inc.  

The Bandwagon series represents one facet of SpaceX’s growing rideshare program, offering dedicated launches to mid-inclination orbits.

The first mission in this series, Bandwagon-1, launched in April 2024, followed by Bandwagon-2 in December 2024. This program complements SpaceX’s well-established Transporter rideshare missions, which target sun-synchronous orbits. The Transporter program has completed 13 missions to date, including the record-setting Transporter-1 flight in January 2021, which deployed 143 satellites on a single launch – a record that remains unbroken.