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SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer A

SpaceX · Falcon 9 Block 5 · Space Launch Complex 4E, Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

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Where it was visible

Night launch: visible as a bright moving light from far away if it's clear.

  • Santa Barbara, CA87 kmSW, up to 31° from T+1:00Bright moving light
  • Los Angeles, CA227 kmWSW, up to 21° from T+1:30Bright moving light
  • Fresno, CA246 kmSSW, up to 14° from T+1:30Bright moving light
  • San Jose, CA322 kmS, up to 12° from T+1:30Bright moving light
  • San Diego, CA384 kmW, up to 18° from T+1:30Bright moving light
  • San Francisco, CA385 kmS, up to 10° from T+2:00Bright moving light
  • Tijuana, Mexico406 kmWSW, up to 17° from T+2:00Bright moving light
  • Sacramento, CA446 kmS, up to 9° from T+2:00Bright moving light
  • Las Vegas, NV524 kmSW, up to 8° from T+2:00Bright moving light
  • Phoenix, AZ798 kmWSW, up to 6° from T+3:00Bright moving light

Estimates from a typical ascent toward the likely orbit. Real trajectories, cloud and haze vary; the farther away, the lower and shorter the view.

Mission

Tranche 1 Transport Layer A is one of six missions by the United States Space Force Space Development Agency (SDA) for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer constellation, which will provide assured, resilient, low-latency military data and connectivity worldwide to the full range of warfighter platforms from Low Earth Orbit satellites. The constellation will be interconnected with Optical Inter-Satellite Links (OISLs) which have significantly increased performance over existing radio frequency crosslinks. It is expected to operate over Ka band, have stereo coverage and be dynamically networked for simpler hand-offs, greater bandwidth and fault tolerance. This launch carries 21 satellites manufactured by Northrop Grumman.

Launch time (UTC)
Oct 10, 07:39 UTC
Precision
Second
Orbit
PO
Mission type
Government/Top Secret
Weather GO
80%
Pad
Space Launch Complex 4E

Rocket · Falcon 9 Block 5

Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit. The Block 5 variant is the fifth major interval aimed at improving upon the ability for rapid reusability.

Height
70 m
Diameter
3.65 m
Liftoff mass
549 t
Liftoff thrust
7,607 kN
To LEO
22,800 kg
To GTO
8,300 kg
Track record
639 / 640 successful
Success streak
342
First flight
2018-05-11
Reusable
Yes

Booster

  • B1103 — 6th flight. Landing (RTLS) on Landing Zone 4: landed.

Mission timeline

  1. T−38:00GO for Prop Load
  2. T−35:00Prop Load
  3. T−35:00Stage 1 LOX Load
  4. T−16:00Stage 2 LOX Load
  5. T−07:00Engine Chill
  6. T−01:00Tank Press
  7. T−01:00Startup
  8. T−00:45GO for Launch
  9. T−00:03Ignition
  10. T−0Liftoff
  11. T+01:04Max-Q
  12. T+02:14MECO
  13. T+02:18Stage 2 Separation
  14. T+02:25SES-1
  15. T+02:31Booster Boostback Burn Startup
  16. T+03:04Fairing Separation
  17. T+03:24Booster Boostback Burn Shutdown
  18. T+06:09Entry Burn Startup
  19. T+06:21Entry Burn Shutdown
  20. T+07:15Stage 1 Landing Burn
  21. T+07:19Stage 1 Landing

This is the 239th orbital launch attempt worldwide this year, SpaceX's 117th launch this year, the 301st launch from Space Launch Complex 4E.

Launch time changes · 6

  1. Oct 9, 15:05 UTC Slipped +10m to Oct 10, 07:39 UTC
  2. Oct 8, 00:17 UTC Slipped +23.9h to Oct 10, 07:29 UTC
  3. Oct 7, 20:42 UTC Slipped +23.7h to Oct 9, 07:36 UTC
  4. Oct 6, 00:45 UTC Slipped +2d to Oct 8, 07:54 UTC
  5. Oct 5, 08:28 UTC Slipped +24h to Oct 6, 08:17 UTC
  6. Sep 30, 16:07 UTC Slipped +10m to Oct 5, 08:16 UTC

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Full Vandenberg schedule →