Update at 10:45 am ET: SpaceX is targeting Friday, September 1, to launch a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 13 military satellites on the second Tranche-0 mission for the US Space Force’s Space Development Agency. Liftoff is now set for 10:26 am EDT (1426 GMT) after a 1-day delay.
SpaceX will launch a fleet of military satellites this Friday (Sept. 1) after a one-day delay, and you can watch the action live.
The Falcon 9 rocket, the first of 13 spacecraft for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Development Agency (SDA), is slated to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Friday. 10:26 a.m. EDT (1426 GMT; 7:26 a.m. local California time).
You can watch it live on Space.com when the time comes, courtesy of SpaceX or Directly through the company. Coverage is expected to begin 15 minutes before departure. SpaceX initially attempted to launch the Tranche 0 mission on August 31, but postponed it for an undisclosed reason.
Related: What is the US Space Force and what does it do?
Friday’s launch will support SpaceX’s second Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), “a new tiered network of satellites in low Earth orbit and supporting components that provide global military communications and missile warning, indication and tracking capabilities,” SpaceX wrote. A Description of the work.
The first PWSA mission took place in early April, when a Falcon 9 loaded 10 satellites from Vandenberg.
These first two missions were dedicated to the creation of a demonstration cluster called “Tranche 0” consisting of 28 satellites. According to Space News. Most of them are communication craft, but some are designed to detect missiles.
As its name suggests, Tranche 0 is the beginning for PWSA.
“Under the plan, the Space Force will have hundreds of small satellites, with new ones launched every few years to increase orbital resiliency and capabilities.” By Air and Space Force Magazine At the end of March.
If all goes as planned, Falcon 9’s first stage will return for touchdown at Vandenberg 7.5 minutes after launch today. According to the SpaceX mission description, this will be the 14th launch and landing for this particular booster.
It is unclear when the satellites will be deployed; SpaceX has not provided any information about that milestone. No wonder; Details are often limited in national security missions.
