SpaceX scrubs Bandwagon-5 launch on booster-recovery weather, retargets Tuesday dawn

SpaceX has scrubbed Monday’s attempt to launch its Bandwagon-5 rideshare mission, blaming unfavourable weather for the planned booster recovery in the Atlantic, and is now targeting a pre-dawn liftoff on Tuesday (Florida Today).

The new one-hour launch window opens at 6:30 a.m. ET (10:30 UTC) on Tuesday, October 20, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron had given Monday only a 55% chance of acceptable conditions, citing cumulus clouds, liftoff winds and a moderate-to-high risk that weather near the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas — stationed near the Bahamas — would rule out the landing attempt.

The Falcon 9 is carrying 32 payloads to low-Earth orbit, including cubesats, microsats and reentry vehicles. Among them are SpaceX’s Starfall capsule and Varda Space Industries’ W-Series 7 spacecraft, which is studying whether microgravity can improve the solubility of the cancer drug Protac. Launch-mission firm Exolaunch is deploying 23 customer satellites on the flight (Spaceflight Now).

The mission will use first-stage booster B1085 on its 19th flight. After stage separation it will attempt to land on A Shortfall of Gravitas, so no sonic booms are expected over Florida. Tuesday’s pre-sunrise timing could produce another of the illuminated “space jellyfish” effects that lit up the East Coast after the October 13 CRS-35 cargo launch, according to the Space Jellyfish Predictor website.

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