SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare mission is set to carry AI datacenter prototypes, energy redirection demonstrators, and roughly 130 payloads to orbit, according to Spaceflight Now. Among the payloads is a Google AI satellite, Space reports. The mission is scheduled to launch from a SpaceX pad, with coverage published Thursday.
Spaceflight Now's live coverage lists the AI datacenter prototypes and energy redirection demonstrators among the manifest. Space reports the flight will carry a Google AI satellite alongside 129 other payloads, putting the total at about 130 spacecraft.
The launch may produce sonic booms over California's Central Coast, KSBY News reports. That is consistent with SpaceX's practice of returning booster stages to land near the coast after some missions.
The mission follows a stretch of rapid Starshield launches from a single pad — four in 43 days — noted by the SpaceX Daily newsletter. Transporter missions are SpaceX's dedicated smallsat rideshare flights, which group many customers' payloads onto one rocket.
What to watch next: confirmation of a successful deployment of the AI datacenter prototypes and the Google AI satellite, and whether the booster return generates the sonic booms KSBY warned about.
