SpaceX is preparing to launch 32 rideshare payloads on its Bandwagon-5 mission, with a Falcon 9 rocket scheduled to lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. A one-hour launch window opens at 6:30 a.m. EDT on Monday, Oct. 19, with the vehicle following a southeasterly trajectory to low-Earth orbit.
The mission comes on the heels of the successful Transporter 18 flight earlier this month and continues SpaceX's effort to make access to space more affordable for small satellite companies, government agencies and educational institutions. The rideshare program allows customers to launch payloads of up to 50 kilograms for $350,000, a fraction of the cost of a dedicated Falcon 9 launch.
Alongside the rideshare satellites, SpaceX is flying the second of its Starfall capsules, mounted atop the satellite stack. The disk-shaped reentry vehicle, which measures 3.1 meters in diameter and 0.75 meters in height, has a mass of 2,100 kilograms and can carry up to 1,000 kilograms of payload. SpaceX intends to use Starfall for point-to-point cargo delivery and for transporting goods manufactured in microgravity. The capsule features cold-gas nitrogen thrusters for orientation during reentry, a jettisonable heat shield and parachute-assisted splashdown, with recovery vessels retrieving all components.
The first Starfall demonstration launched in June, and the company plans to eventually fly the capsules aboard its Starship vehicle, potentially multiple units at a time. Initial test landings are planned for the Pacific Ocean roughly 1,300 kilometers off the coast of the United States or Mexico.
Exolaunch, a launch services and mission management provider, is manifesting 22 customer satellites on Bandwagon-5, including 19 it is directly manifesting and three more it is facilitating. The company has provided payloads for every SpaceX rideshare mission to date and has manifested 890 payloads across various launch vehicles.
Among the payloads is Impulse Space's LEO Express 4, an orbital transfer vehicle designed to host and deploy payloads in high-energy orbits using its Saiph thrusters. The spacecraft can also perform rendezvous and proximity operations and space domain awareness. Three previous Impulse Space vehicles flew on Falcon 9 Transporter missions in 2023 and 2025.
Xona Space Systems is sending up four Pulsar satellites — Pulsar-01 through Pulsar-04 — as part of a planned constellation of approximately 250 satellites. The network is intended to provide a commercial positioning, navigation and timing system as an alternative to the government-owned GPS, orbiting closer to Earth to deliver a signal at least 100 times stronger and more resistant to interference.
Several synthetic aperture radar satellites are also on board, including four Earth observation satellites from ICEYE, two high-resolution SAR satellites from Capella Space and two commercial SAR payloads from Umbra Space. SAR technology produces high-resolution imagery in any weather and at any time of day, supporting both military and civilian applications.
Other payloads include Planet Labs' Pelican-12, a very high-resolution optical imager joining the Pelican constellation, and Starburst-1, an ESPA-class bus developed by Portal Space Systems capable of rapid retasking and orbital changes. Varda Space Industries is manifesting its Winnebago 7 capsule, an autonomous free-flying platform built to return pharmaceutical materials from orbit. The capsule will carry a new cancer medicine called PROTAC, with Varda testing the processing of pharmaceuticals in microgravity.
The Falcon 9 first-stage booster, B1085, will attempt its 19th flight and is set to be recovered by the autonomous droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas downrange in the Atlantic Ocean. The booster has previously supported missions including Crew-9, RRT-1, Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 1, Fram2, SXM-10, MTG-S1, EchoStar XXV, SXM-11 and 10 Starlink flights.
Payload deployment is scheduled to begin at 57 minutes and 18 seconds after liftoff, with the final Starfall payload set for deployment at two hours, 48 minutes and 28 seconds into the mission.