SpaceX’s Bandwagon-1 mission

Bandwagon-1 is the first of a new series of SpaceX rideshare missions that will go to mid-inclination orbits. To date, the private space company has launched 10 ‘Transporter’ rideshare missions to Sun–synchronous orbits,which are typically used by remote sensing satellites.

SpaceX has previously noted that mid-inclination orbits are the second most requested among its customers. Despite this demand, it is the first time the private space company has lifted a dedicated rideshare mission to that orbit. 

That is down to the fact that SpaceX has decided to prioritize higher demand Transporter missions, as well as Starlink internet satellite launches, which bring in a great deal of revenue for SpaceX. 

In fact, Elon Musk recently pointed out during a talk at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in southern Texas that Starlink was “paying for a lot of what we’re doing here”.

Bandwagon-1 sent its payloads to a low Earth orbit at an inclination of about 45 degrees relative to Earth’s equator.

Seven and a half minutes after the launch of Bandwagon-1, the Falcon 9’s reusable first-stage booster came back to Earth for its 14th landing.

The mission carried one of South Korea’s military “425 Project” satellites. SpaceX will launch five of these satellites and it launched one back in December 2023. Four of these will feature synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instruments, while the one launched on Bandwagon-1 uses optical/infrared imagers. 

Why launch to mid-inclination orbits?

SpaceX first announced its Bandwagon missions at the Small Satellite Conference last August. During that conference, it announced that it planned to fly two Bandwagon missions in 2024 and another two the following year. 

SpaceX stated that mid-inclination orbits were the second most commonly requested orbits among its customers after sun-synchronous orbits. Customers on the Bandwagon-1 mission said they chose the mid-inclination orbit because it offers better coverage over low and mid altitudes when compared with sun-synchronous orbits.