Dozens of small satellites set to conduct various missions shared a Falcon 9 rocket ride to space Tuesday morning as clear skies rewarded spectators for the launch and landing at Vandenberg Space Force Base.
The two-stage rocket built by SpaceX blasted off at 11:09 a.m. from Space Launch Complex-4 on South Base, where the first-stage booster, making its second flight, returned less than eight minutes later, sparking a familiar clap of a sonic boom.
The rocket carried the Transporter-12 mission made up of 131 payloads including CubeSats, MicroSats, and orbital transfer vehicles carrying 30 of those payloads, 14 of which will be deployed at a later time.
The first deployment of the payloads was set to start one hour after liftoff with others to follow. The entire sequence lasted more than two hours.
Spacecraft on board the rocket came from a variety of countries including Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Lithuania, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Uruguay.
Planet Labs saw its high-resolution Pelican-2 satellite plus 36 SuperDoves (Flock 4G) craft successfully arrive in space.
“We’ve made contact with each of our new satellites, commissioning will begin shortly, and celebrations are underway,” Planet Labs representatives said on social media.
Pelican-2 is designed to provide up to 40-cm class resolution imagery — those capable of spotting items more than a 1-foot in size — across six multispectral bands.
Planet’s newest satellite aims to shrink the time between data capture and availability for customers. By rapidly converting data, Planet-2 delivery of information to customers would occur within minutes, not hours.
“This is critical for applications from security to disaster response where minutes can make the difference,” said Will Marshall, co-founder and CEO of Planet.
Planet plans to launch additional Pelicans this year, according to San Francisco-based firm.
Another satellite aboard Transporter-12 will focus on maritime situational awareness for a number of purposes including security and environmental protection.
Called BRO-16, the satellite from France-based Unseenlabs, aims to combat maritime invisibility by detecting radio frequency.
BRO-16 will boost the firm’s state-of-the-art constellation, enhancing the capability of detecting, monitoring and analyzing RF signals worldwide.
“This addition underscores the company’s commitment to delivering unparalleled maritime intelligence to address pressing challenges including illegal fishing, piracy and environmental risk,” Unseen Labs representatives said.
Customers include governments, non-movement organizations, insurers and shipowners, according to Unseenlabs.
“BRO-16 represents another leap forward in empowering stakeholder to act decisively in protecting the oceans and addressing global maritimes challenges,” said Clément Galic CEO and co-founder of Unseenlabs.
This was the second launch of 2025 from Vandenberg.
