SpaceX sends 45 satellites to orbit in nighttime launch from California (video)

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The primary payload was a South Korean spacecraft that was originally supposed to fly in 2022.

SpaceX launched 45 satellites to orbit from California early Sunday morning (May 3), including a South Korean spacecraft that was originally supposed to fly in 2022.

SpaceX called the mission CAS500-2, after the primary payload going up — the CAS500-2 Earth-observation satellite, which was developed by the Korean Aerospace Research Institute.

A rocket launch carves an orange arc into a dark night sky in this long-exposure photo.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches the CAS500-2 rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base on May 3, 2026. (Image credit: SpaceX)

South Korea's CAS500 ("Compact Advanced Satellite 500") program aims to operate a total of five satellites in low Earth orbit. These spacecraft will gather data for a variety of purposes, from disaster monitoring to crop observation.

Two of the satellites had reached orbit before Sunday. CAS500-1 lifted off atop a Russian Soyuz rocket in March 2021, and a South Korean Nuri vehicle lofted CAS500-3 in November 2025.

As its name suggests, CAS500-2 was supposed to be the second off the pad. It was booked to fly on a Soyuz in 2022, but Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February of that year sundered the international partnership that led to the deal, putting the satellite in mothballs for a spell.

Previous Booster 1071 missions

NROL-87 | NROL-85 | SARah-1 | SWOT | Transporter-8 | Transporter-9 | Transporter-13 | NROL-146 | Bandwagon-2 | NROL-153 | NROL-192 | Transporter-14 | Transporter-15 | 20 Starlink missions

Forty-four other satellites flew along with CAS500-2 on Sunday. They were a diverse bunch with many different operators — Argotec S.r.l, Exolaunch, Impulso.Space, Loft-EarthDaily, Lynk Global, True Anomaly and Planet Labs, according to SpaceX's mission description.

All went according to plan on Sunday morning. The Falcon 9's first stage landed back at Vandenberg about 7.5 minutes after liftoff. It was the 33rd launch and touchdown for this particular booster, which is designated B1071. That's just one off the company reuse record, which a Falcon 9 set in late March during a Starlink broadband-satellite launch.

CAS500-2 was the first satellite to deploy from the Falcon 9's upper stage, at about 60 minutes after liftoff. The other payloads followed suit over the next hour and a half.

Sunday morning's launch was the 54th of the year so far for SpaceX. All but one of its 2026 missions to date have been Falcon 9 flights; the other one was performed by the company's powerful Falcon Heavy.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 10:10 a.m. ET on May 3 with news of successful launch and rocket landing.

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Mike Wall
Mike Wall
Spaceflight and Tech Editor

Michael Wall is the Spaceflight and Tech Editor for Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers human and robotic spaceflight, military space, and exoplanets, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.