Pandora / Twilight rideshare mission

SpaceX's first Twilight rideshare mission carried 40 spacecraft to a dawn-dusk Sun-synchronous orbit from Vandenberg, including NASA's Pandora exoplanet observatory and the BlackCAT and SPARCS astrophysics CubeSats.

Outcome

Success

Orbit

SSO

Sun-synchronous orbit

Payload to orbit

4 T (est.)

Flight

529th

of 638 Falcon 9 Block 5 flights

Date and time

11 January 2026, 13:44 UTC

Rocket

Falcon 9 Block 5

Builder

SpaceX

Launch site

Space Launch Complex 4E, Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

Payload

Astrophysics

International designator

2026-004

Launches in 2026

4th of 243

See it in orbit

Space Atlas shows the satellites and rocket stages from this launch in 3D.

View satellites in Space Atlas↗