Three NASA-supported small spacecraft were among the payloads encapsulated aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 ahead of the Transporter-18 launch on Oct. 1, 2026, NASA said.
The missions flew alongside commercial payloads. NASA identified the spacecraft as the ASCENT Propulsion Dual Mode CubeSat, the Supernova Remnants and Proxies for ReIonization Testbed Experiment, known as SPRITE, and the Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability mission, or SSPICY.
ASCENT is designed to demonstrate new propulsion technologies. SPRITE will study how galactic dust and high-energy radiation move through galaxies, while SSPICY is intended to advance capabilities for inspecting inactive satellites.
NASA credited SpaceX for the image showing the small spacecraft before Falcon 9 encapsulation.
