An update to my Bandwagon-5 and Starfall post.
What happened
The Air Force Research Laboratory says its test worked. Starfall launched on Falcon 9 with Bandwagon-5 on Oct 20 from Cape Canaveral, carrying AFRL’s agile cargo pods. On Oct 26, AFRL posted that the pods were recovered after splashdown in the Pacific. They held stand-in gear like medical supplies, ration packs, batteries, a SATCOM tracker and a desalinator, along with sensors that tracked temperature, shock and vibration through launch, reentry and splashdown. AFRL also fit-checked a life raft for possible future tests.
My take
Delivering cargo anywhere on Earth from orbit sounded like sci-fi a few years ago. Now there are photos of airmen unpacking a pod. SpaceX keeps turning “someday” into “Tuesday.”
God Bless, and May the Source Be with You!
