TL;DR: SpaceX launched its Starfall return capsule for the second time on Oct. 20 aboard the Bandwagon-5 rideshare mission from Florida.

Second Starfall flight lifts off on Bandwagon-5

SpaceX launched its Starfall return capsule for the second time on Oct. 20, according to Space.com. Starfall flew as one of 32 payloads on the company's Bandwagon-5 rideshare mission. The mission lifted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket at 7:04 a.m. EDT on Oct. 20. The launch site was Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The specific launch pad was Space Launch Complex 40. SpaceX had scrubbed a launch attempt on Oct. 19 because of poor weather in the booster recovery zone, according to Spaceflight Now. SpaceX then updated the T-0 launch time for Oct. 20, with liftoff targeted before dawn. The 45th Weather Squadron forecast a 90 percent chance of acceptable weather for the Oct. 20 window. Forecasters said a cold front along southern Florida was drifting farther south. That shift was expected to decrease high winds at liftoff compared with the Oct. 19 window. Forecasters also cited a moderate risk of unacceptable weather at the first-stage recovery site. They said recovery conditions were an improvement over conditions forecast for Oct. 19. The rocket flew on a southeasterly trajectory after leaving the pad.

Where Starfall rode in the payload stack

SpaceX posted a prelaunch photo showing Starfall at the top of the Bandwagon-5 payload stack. Starfall sat above the other payloads inside the Falcon 9 payload fairing. SpaceX described the manifest as cubesats, microsats and reentry vehicles. Teams encapsulated 32 payloads ahead of launch from Florida. SpaceX said Starfall would be the last of the 32 payloads to separate. Deployments were planned over a nearly two-hour span beginning about 57 minutes after launch. Customer payload separations were listed from T+57:18 through T+1:09:30. Starfall was scheduled to deploy from the Falcon 9 upper stage two hours and 48 minutes after liftoff. The upper stage was to perform a second burn at about T+53 minutes before customer deployments began. The long gap placed Starfall deployment more than 90 minutes after the other separations.

What Starfall is built to do

SpaceX has said Starfall will enable affordable, routine access to microgravity for research and manufacturing. The company made that statement in a June 23 X post, according to Space.com. SpaceX has otherwise released relatively few public details about Starfall. Most available dimensions come from a Federal Aviation Administration environmental assessment published in May. The assessment described Starfall as disk-shaped. The vehicle is roughly 2.5 feet tall, according to that assessment. It is about 10.2 feet wide. Those dimensions correspond to about 0.75 meters tall and 3.1 meters in diameter. Starfall weighs about 4,600 pounds, or about 2,100 kilograms. It can bring about 2,200 pounds of payload back to Earth. That return capacity equals about 1,000 kilograms. During the June 23 broadcast, SpaceX commentator Zachary Luppen described Starfall as a microgravity lab. Luppen is an avionics supply chain engineer at SpaceX. He said researchers and entrepreneurs can use the spacecraft to develop products and innovations. He also said microgravity research and in-space manufacturing have shown opportunities to benefit life on Earth. SpaceX did not state what payloads, if any, were aboard this Starfall mission, according to Spaceflight Now.

How the first flight tested reentry

Starfall debuted on June 23 on a Falcon 9 launch from the Cape. That flight was a dedicated demonstration mission for Starfall. Its objective was to show controlled flight and survival during descent through Earth's atmosphere. SpaceX did not reveal that its spacecraft was aboard until fairly close to that flight, according to Spaceflight Now. The company shared a rendering of the vehicle before launch. The launch broadcast did not disclose when Starfall would deploy. The capsule remained attached to the upper stage for about one and one-half orbits on that mission. The stage then placed itself and Starfall on a path back into the atmosphere. Starfall separated for reentry after that maneuver. Unlike some other return capsules, Starfall has no engine to leave orbit by itself. The FAA assessment said it carries only an inert-gas attitude-control system. That system can orient the capsule but cannot perform a deorbit burn. On the first flight, the Falcon 9 upper stage performed the deorbit maneuver. SpaceX has not published a reentry plan for the second Starfall flight.

Varda's W-Series 7 flew alongside Starfall

Starfall was not the only return capsule aboard Bandwagon-5. The mission also carried W-Series 7, an orbital mini-factory built by Varda Space Industries. Varda is based in California. The company designs W-Series capsules to host production of valuable goods and return them to Earth. Varda has cited pharmaceuticals as an example of those goods. W-7 is about three times smaller than Starfall, according to Spaceflight Now. Despite the W-7 name, it is Varda's ninth reentry capsule launched to date. Varda launched W-8 and W-9 earlier in October on the Transporter-18 mission. W-7 carries the cancer drug Protac. The mission will study whether microgravity can improve the drug's solubility. Varda said molecules in microgravity can crystallize differently than on Earth. Those differences can potentially produce crystal forms with improved properties. Improved solubility was among the properties cited by the company. Varda said a successful experiment could help turn protein-degrading molecules into more practical cancer treatments. W-Series 7 was scheduled to deploy at about T+1:09 period in the published sequence, well before Starfall.

Satellites, sensors and navigation payloads on board

The remaining Bandwagon-5 payloads were a mix of cubesats and microsats, according to Space.com. One was Pelican-12, an Earth-observation satellite built by Planet. Planet is based in San Francisco. Pelican-12 is described as a sharp-eyed Earth-observation satellite. Multinational mission manager Exolaunch manifested 20 of the remaining 31 payloads. Those included four radio-frequency monitoring satellites from HawkEye 360. HawkEye 360 is based in Virginia. The Exolaunch manifest also included four communications satellites for Iceye. Iceye is a Finnish microsatellite company. It also included six navigation satellites from Xona Space Systems. Xona Space Systems is based in California. Bandwagon-5 also carried the Starburst-1 demonstration mission from Portal Space Systems Inc. Starburst-1 is a 260-kilogram spacecraft. It is designed to perform orbital maneuvers and support a customer payload of up to 50 kilograms. Portal said the first Starburst demonstration is fully funded by the company. The purpose is to prove capability ahead of customer missions. Portal advertises customer flights starting in 2027.

Veteran booster returns to drone ship

The Falcon 9 first stage returned to Earth as planned on Bandwagon-5, according to Space.com. It touched down about nine minutes after launch. The landing took place in the Atlantic Ocean. The drone ship was A Shortfall of Gravitas. It was the 19th mission for that particular booster. SpaceX identifies the booster as B1085, according to Spaceflight Now. Its prior flights included NASA's Crew-9 mission. They also included the Fram2 polar crew flight. Other prior missions included Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 1 to the Moon. Additional prior flights included RRT-1, SXM-10, SXM-11, MTG-S1 and EchoStar 25. Ten batches of Starlink satellites were also among its previous missions. A successful landing would mark the 167th landing on that vessel. It would also mark the 672nd Falcon booster landing to date.

Bandwagon and Transporter rideshare programs

Bandwagon is one of two SpaceX rideshare programs. The other program is known as Transporter. Transporter has flown 18 missions to date. The first Transporter mission lifted off in January 2021. That mission delivered 143 payloads to Earth orbit. That single-launch total remains a record. Bandwagon missions launch to different orbits than Transporter missions. Bandwagon-5 continued SpaceX's regular rideshare cadence for small and midsize payloads. The Oct. 20 flight placed two reentry vehicles on the same manifest. It was the first time Starfall appeared on a public rideshare manifest after its dedicated debut. The mission combined technology demonstrations, commercial satellites and return-capsule tests in one launch.

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