![\"Bandwagon-4](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/bandwagon-4-948x632.jpeg\")
Bandwagon-4 lifts off. Image: SpaceX<\/p>\n Bandwagon-4 lifts off. Image: SpaceX<\/p>\n
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A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off the pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the early hours of Sunday morning with a pair of next-gen payloads on board<\/p>\n
In total, the flight brought 18 payloads to mid-inclination orbit, including many repeat customers, as part of SpaceX\u2019s fourth Bandwagon rideshare mission in less than two years.<\/p>\n
The manifest: On board the flight were two notable technologies flying for the first time:<\/p>\n
The first iteration of an orbital AI data center from Washington-based startup Starcloud, which is carrying a NVIDIA ($NVDA) GPU to run AI models in space. This flight sets the stage for Starcloud\u2019s first commercial satellite\u2014Starcloud-2\u2014which is scheduled to offer 24\/7 data center access beginning in 2026.The first demo hardware from Vast is attempting to validate many of the technologies that will fly on the company\u2019s first commercial space station, Haven-1, which is expected to launch as early as next year. Vast\u2019s Haven Demo will test the future space station\u2019s propulsion, flight computers, and navigational systems.<\/p>\n
Joining the flock: The flight wasn\u2019t all new tech, however, and many of the payloads deployed on orbit yesterday were part of larger constellations.<\/p>\n
South Korea\u2019s Agency for Defense Development deployed the fifth and final satellite as part of the nation\u2019s 425 Project, a constellation now consisting of four SAR sats and one electro-optical\/infrared sat.Space42, the UAE-based EO company, launched three ICEYE SAR sats.Tomorrow.io launched a pair of AI powered weather detecting satellites.<\/p>\n
Turkish delights: Also onboard the Bandwagon flight were a handful of satellites from Turkey, including four IoT picosats developed by Gumush Aerospace, as well as the second GPS satellite from Fergani Space, which hopes to launch a 100-sat constellation within the next five years.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bandwagon-4 lifts off. Image: SpaceX Sign up for our Flagship Daily Newsletter A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-115665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}