SpaceX launches 45 satellites on Falcon 9 Rideshare from Vandenberg

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Station on Saturday, carrying 45 satellites into Sun-synchronous orbit on a mission that crosses at least a decade of geopolitical turbulence to reach the pad.

The spacecraft’s main cargo is the CAS500-2, which was designed by the Korean company Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI). The compact advanced satellite was supposed to be launched by a Russian rocket in 2022, but the invasion of Ukraine forced Korea to change its launch plans.

There were also some further complications with regard to the satellite's launch after SpaceX decided to reorganise their joint launch, making the launch date of CAS500-2 fall behind that of its replacement, CAS500-3, which had been successfully launched on South Korea's Nuri rocket in November 2024.

First-stage Falcon 9 B1071 had flown into orbit on its 33rd mission and was responsible for launching Germany’s SARah-1 reconnaissance satellite, NASA’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission, five classified payloads from NRO, and 20 rideshare Starlink missions before this one.

Within 7.5 minutes of launch, B1071 aimed at achieving a successful landing at Landing Zone 4 located near the launchpad. In achieving this, SpaceX recovered its 608th booster ever and the 34th landing at the location.

Exolaunch was responsible for managing the deployment of 21 CubeSats and 18 MicroSats on board through two separate orbital release phases at 76 minutes and 142 minutes post-launch.