Overview
- SpaceX launched three missions in roughly 13 hours starting Thursday, completing a morning Crew‑13 flight to the ISS, an afternoon Transporter‑18 rideshare from Vandenberg that carried 130 payloads, and a late‑night Falcon Heavy flight for the NRO.
- Transporter‑18 delivered a mixed manifest to sun‑synchronous low Earth orbit that included Carbon Mapper’s Tanager‑2, NASA’s SPRITE telescope, Google’s Project Suncatcher prototype, Starfish Space’s Otter servicing vehicle, and Varda Space’s W‑series on‑orbit factories.
- The Falcon Heavy NROL‑97 mission sent a classified NRO payload to a high‑energy trajectory while recovering both side boosters to Landing Zones 1 and 2 and expending the center core to meet the mission’s performance needs.
- Launch operations showed high cadence and reuse: the Transporter booster B1082 flew its 25th mission and SpaceX recovered four boosters across the day, producing sonic booms heard along Florida’s Space Coast as the side boosters returned.
- The concentrated day highlights two trends in orbital operations: rideshare flights are lowering barriers for small actors and technology demonstrations, and government customers are relying on commercial heavy lift even as SpaceX plans a longer‑term shift to Starship.