🚀 Falcon 9 | 🛰 PHOENIX 1
Launch date: April 22, 2025 00:48 UTC
Payload: Bandwagon-3
Location: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
Vehicle: Falcon 9
On April 21, 2025 at 8:48 p.m. EDT (April 22, 0048 UTC), SpaceX launched the Bandwagon-3 rideshare mission from SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, marking the 300th orbital flight from the pad. The Falcon 9 carried a diverse set of payloads, including South Korea’s fourth synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite for the Korea 425 Project constellation, Tomorrow.io’s Tomorrow-S7 weather monitoring satellite, and Atmos Space Cargo’s Phoenix 1 capsule—the first private European reentry capsule. Phoenix 1 demonstrated reentry technology, including an inflatable heat shield, and supported scientific experiments before reentering Earth’s atmosphere and splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean, though it was not recovered. Atmos plans a follow-on Phoenix 2 for 2026. The booster B1090 successfully landed at Landing Zone 2. The flight expands SpaceX’s rideshare program and advances satellite and reentry technologies for a range of government and commercial customers.
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SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, USA
Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) is a historic launch site located at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Built in the 1960s, it was originally used for Titan III and Titan IV launches, supporting a variety of military, intelligence, and interplanetary missions. After a period of inactivity, SpaceX leased and extensively modified SLC-40 in the 2000s to launch Falcon 9 rockets.
Since becoming operational for SpaceX in 2010, SLC-40 has become a principal hub for commercial, governmental, and crewed missions aboard Falcon 9. The pad has seen dozens of launches annually, significantly contributing to America’s presence in space exploration, satellite deployment, and servicing the International Space Station.