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SpaceX's Bandwagon-5 rideshare opens a busy launch week that includes Japan's Mars moon probe
A Falcon 9 carrying 31 payloads is due to lift off from Florida at 4 pm IST on Monday, hours before Japan's H3 rocket sends the MMX probe towards Phobos.
Key points
- Bandwagon-5 is due to launch at 4 pm IST on Monday from Cape Canaveral, with a backup on Tuesday.
- The rideshare flight lists 31 payloads for low Earth orbit.
- Japan's MMX probe is due to launch at 1:11 am IST on Tuesday from Tanegashima.
SpaceX is due to launch its fifth Bandwagon rideshare mission from Florida on Monday, the first of four launches planned around the world over the next few days, including Japan’s attempt to bring back soil from a moon of Mars.
A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in a one-hour window opening at 6:30 am local time (4 pm IST). The flight lists 31 payloads bound for low Earth orbit, though launch schedules do not list them individually. If Monday’s attempt slips, SpaceX has a backup opportunity on Tuesday.
The first stage, booster B1085, will fly a south-easterly trajectory. It will be SpaceX’s 115th Falcon 9 mission of 2026.
The rest of the week
Hours later, Japan’s H3 rocket is set to launch the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) probe from the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at Tanegashima at 1:11 am IST on Tuesday. The JAXA mission aims to land on Phobos and return the first samples from a Martian moon.
SpaceX then plans to launch 27 Starlink V2 Mini satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, with the window opening at 22:14 UTC on 20 October (3:44 am IST on Wednesday). Rocket Lab’s Electron is due to follow no earlier than 21 October from its Mahia pad in New Zealand, carrying three HawkEye 360 satellites on a mission named “We’re Not Hawking Around”.