SpaceX launched a Transporter rideshare mission aboard a Falcon 9 from California, on the identical day because the Crew-13 and NROL-97 Falcon Heavy missions had been scheduled out of Florida. That is the primary time shortly that the corporate is utilizing all three Falcon-capable launch pads in the identical normal time interval.
Transporter 18 flew on Thursday, Oct. 1 at 11:32 AM PDT (18:32 UTC) from House Launch Complicated 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg House Drive Base. The 58-minute launch window ended at 12:16 PM PDT (19:16 UTC), and this was the a hundred and tenth Falcon 9 mission of 2026. The mission’s 130 payloads featured a prototype AI satellite tv for pc for Google, the NASA-funded SPRITE telescope, and Starfish’s first Otter servicing car, amongst others.
The rocket took a southerly trajectory appropriate for sun-synchronous orbiting payloads. Following stage separation, the primary stage, B1082-25, performed a return-to-launch-site maneuver earlier than safely touching down at Touchdown Zone 4 close to its launch pad. The booster began its profession with the Starlink 7-9 mission and launched on 20 extra Starlink flights, in addition to the USSF-62, OneWeb #20, and NROL-145 missions.
Artist’s impression of the SPRITE satellite tv for pc in orbit. (Credit score: College of Colorado/LASP)
After the second stage completed the second burn of its Merlin Vac engine at T+51:07, the mission’s payloads had been launched throughout an 11-minute interval from T+54:22 to T+1:05:15. NASA’s SPRITE payload began off the deployment sequence, and the separation of Varda House’s W-8 area manufacturing facility marked the ultimate launch.
Google’s Undertaking Suncatcher M1 prototype, which deployed at T+1:01:25, is an experimental satellite tv for pc to check information processing {hardware} in orbit for future space-based AI information facilities. The satellite tv for pc will consider how Google’s Tensor Processing Models (TPUs) deal with launch vibrations and area radiation, in addition to approaches to cooling the chips.
Information facilities in area may turn into the subsequent main utility to make use of low-Earth orbit, with constellations like SpaceX’s Starmind, designed to launch on Starship, already deliberate. Google’s prototype is among the many first of its form, and the corporate plans to check a laser hyperlink between two of its Suncatcher prototypes in 2027.
BREAKING: Google $GOOGL will launch an experimental AI satellite tv for pc on Oct. 1 carrying 4 of its TPU chips, the New York Instances stories, marking the primary orbital take a look at for Undertaking Suncatcher – Google’s effort to ultimately construct AI information facilities in area.
The satellite tv for pc will take a look at… pic.twitter.com/yaDbC8VzaH
— Outer House Right now (@outerspacetoday) September 24, 2026
One other notable payload on Transporter 18 was Starfish House’s Otter satellite tv for pc servicing car. Otter, which was launched at T+1:03:06, is a 335 kg satellite tv for pc contracted by NASA to autonomously examine a number of lifeless US-owned satellites in orbit. The mission, often called Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Functionality or SSPICY, will last as long as two years.
In the course of the SSPICY mission, Otter will collect spin price, spin-axis, and floor situation information on satellites after approaching them inside a whole lot of meters. SSPICY is a precursor to future life extension and satellite tv for pc deorbiting mission, for which Starfish House has contracts from Intelsat and the US army.
NASA sponsored different payloads on Transporter 18. One among them was the very first payload to be launched, SPRITE, at T+54:22. SPRITE, also called the Supernova Remnants and Proxies for Reionization Testbed Experiment, is a 12U CubeSat that can research shock waves in supernova remnants and ionizing radiation from low-redshift star-forming galaxies.
Artist’s impression of the Exolaunch deployer releasing satellites. (Credit score: Exolaunch)
One other NASA payload is GPDM, or Inexperienced Propulsion Twin Mode. GPDM, which was deployed at T+55:34, will take a look at a low-toxicity “inexperienced” propellant for a dual-mode system that may assist high-impulse and high-efficiency spacecraft maneuvers.
Varda House manifested the W-8 and W-9 satellites as the ultimate payloads set for deployment, beginning with W-9 at T+1:04:56. These satellites host small factories that may make prescription drugs or different supplies, which then switch right into a reentry capsule that touches down safely again on Earth.
Spacecraft separation methods supplier Exolaunch deployed 45 satellites on this mission as a part of its rideshare program. Amongst these payloads are 4 spacecraft for Finnish intelligence firm ICEYE, which operates a constellation of Earth-observation satellites.
Moreover, D-Orbit, Planet Labs, OHB Italia, Satellogic, SEOPS, and different entities additionally had payloads booked on Transporter 18. Furthermore, quite a lot of nations, authorities companies, and personal firms had been represented within the payload manifest.
ICEYE-2 is without doubt one of the payloads scheduled to fly on Transporter 18. (Credit score: SpaceX)
Rideshare missions like this one have been used to construct up constellations like ICEYE, supply nations the power to launch their first satellite tv for pc, and to fly experiments that may not have been possible to fund and fly earlier than. Nonetheless, these missions could not proceed previous 2028 as SpaceX regularly winds down Falcon 9 operations in favor of Starship.
Three extra Transporter missions, numbered 19, 20, and 21, stay on the Falcon 9 manifest, with Transporter 19 scheduled for launch no earlier (NET) than February 2027. Subsequent, Transporter 20 is to fly NET June, and Transporter 21 will launch NET October 2027. The launch web site for these future Transporter missions will not be identified but, as these missions to sun-synchronous orbit can fly from both the West Coast or Florida.
A earlier Varda House satellite tv for pc seen throughout processing. (Credit score: Rocket Lab)
SpaceX can also be winding down its Bandwagon sequence, an analogous rideshare that flies payloads to a mid-latitude orbit with three launches left, all from Florida. The present schedule has Bandwagon-5 for someday in October, whereas itemizing Bandwagon-6 as NET 2027, and Bandwagon-7 set to fly within the first quarter of 2028. That flight will possible be the final ever rideshare mission a Falcon 9 flies, as Starship takes up extra of SpaceX’s manifest.
(Lead picture: Screenshot of Transporter 18 launching from SLC-4E in California on Oct. 1, 2026. Credit score: SpaceX)
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