Spaceflight Now

Update 6:52 a.m. (1152 UTC): The Falcon 9 booster touched down at Landing Zone 4.

SpaceX launched its second, mid-inclination rideshare mission in the predawn hours of Saturday morning, this time launching it from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The mission came more than half a year after Bandwagon-1 lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in April. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at 3:34 a.m. PST (6:34 a.m. EST, 1134 UTC).

The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1071 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for its 21st time. It previously supported the launches of three missions for the National Reconnaissance Office, two Transporter rideshare missions and NASA’s SWOT payload.

A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1071 returned for a touchdown at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4). This marked the 22nd booster landing at LZ-4 and the 386th booster landing to date.

There are 30 payloads flying onboard the Bandwagon-2 mission, including satellites for Sidus Space, Maverick Space Systems, Exolaunch and HawkEye 360.

Update Dec. 21, 12:22 a.m. EST (0522 UTC): SpaceX encountered a pad abort; pivoted to Sunday launch.

A rare pad abort forced SpaceX to stand down from launching four MicroGEO satellites for California-based Astranis into a geosynchronous transfer orbit.

SpaceX didn’t give a reason for the scrub, but said in a post on social media that they were pivoting launch to Sunday instead.

The mission, dubbed ‘Astranis: From One to Many,’ includes the company’s UtilitySat, which is designed to relocate within geostationary Earth orbit over its life to respond to different mission objectives. It will launch alongside three other satellites.

Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is set for 12 a.m. EST (0500 UTC) on Dec. 22. Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about an hour prior to liftoff.

Coming into the launch opportunity, the 45th Weather Squadron forecast a greater than 95 percent chance of favorable weather at liftoff on Friday night. Launch weather officers cited no specific concerns that would prevent the launch from a meteorological perspective during the first launch.

“A broad area of high-pressure over the central United States will bring northwest flow and drier air to the cape Friday and Saturday,” meteorologists wrote in their forecast. “Although the Probability of Violation is slightly higher on the backup day due to a slight chance of a flight-through Cumulus Cloud Rule violation, expect favorable weather for either launch window.”

With the launch on Sunday, weather stands at 95 percent favorable with cumulus clouds as the only potential watch item at liftoff. Meteorologists also show that upper-level wind shear will trend between low to moderate.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster for this launch, tail number B1077 in the SpaceX fleet, will be launching for its 17th time. It’s previously missions included Crew-5, GPS 3 Space Vehicle 06 and CRS-28.

Nearly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1077 will land on the SpaceX droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas,’ which is positioned in the Atlantic Ocean. If successful, this will mark the 91st booster landing on ASOG and the 387th booster landing to date.

Small package, big mission

The four satellites onboard the Falcon 9 are called MicroGEO satellites since they are each roughly the size of a washing machine. They were built in Astranis’ Pier 70 facilities in San Francisco, CA, and are designed to operate for about eight to ten years.

Two of the satellites, named NuView Alpha and NuView Bravo, will serve Anuvu’s aviation and marine customers. The agreement between Anuvu, previously known as Global Eagle Entertainment, and Astranis was announced back in July 2021 and will service the North America and Caribbean regions.

“We aim to expand our connectivity network in a way that is scalable and agile for our mobility customers” said Josh Marks, CEO of Anuvu in a 2021 press release. “Astranis and its MicroGEO satellites will offer Anuvu customers freedom from decades-long contracts or outdated legacy systems. Most significantly, they are quick to market, have a mission life of seven to ten years, and can be controlled and updated from the ground, enabling our mobility clients to pivot their business model as new technology is introduced.”

Anuvu ordered the two satellites launching on Friday (originally planned to launch in “early 2023”) in addition to six more that will be added in the future.

Also onboard Friday’s launch is a satellite called ‘AGILA,’ named after the national bird of the Philippines. It is the first of two satellites providing service to that country through a partnership with Orbits Corp.

“Orbits Corp will be able to double the number of people that it connects in the most remote islands of the Philippines,” wrote John Gedmark, Astranis Founder and CEO in a November 2023 blog post. “Millions of people, many of whom live on less than $5,000 per year, will be able to connect to the internet as a direct result.

“Orbits Corp estimates that this two-satellite program will bring up to 10,000 direct and indirect jobs to the Philippines, accelerating economic growth and jumpstarting economic development in many of the smallest and most remote communities in the fast-growing nation.”

GEO mobility

The final satellite aboard the mission is called ‘UtilitySat,’ which will initially be used in service of Astranis customer, Apco Networks, an internet service provider, in Mexico.

This is the first of two MicroGEO satellites sold to the company, which has the ability to “connect up to five million people,” Gedmark said in a 2023 blog post.

“A number of our employees at Astranis come from Mexico, some from small communities where connectivity is very poor, or non-existent,” he said. “As they told us, and as we found from further research, the need for better connectivity in Mexico is self-evident — more than 30 percent of the country does not have internet access today, and satellite is often the only way to connect the remote and rural communities scattered across the rough, mountainous terrain of Mexico’s 32 states.

“And the nation itself is focused on improving satellite internet availability. Connectivity is a constitutional right in Mexico, and the President has made connectivity a national priority.”

UtilitySat is unique from the other three satellites on this mission because it is designed to adjust its orbital position and support a different mission than its original one at launch.

“UtilitySat is the world’s first multi-mission commercial GEO satellite, capable of conducting fully operational broadband connectivity missions in Ka, Ku, and Q/V bands,” Astranis wrote on its website. “A fully maneuverable satellite with onboard propulsion, UtilitySat will perform multiple such missions throughout its life on orbit — relocating or repointing each year, month, or day to serve urgent customer needs.”

The company said it plans to launch “a fleet of UtilitySat satellites in the coming years.”

Excited to announce UtilitySat, the world’s first multi-mission geostationary satellite, that we’re launching at the end of this year.

This is a first of its kind. And a new product line– providing on-demand connectivity for disaster relief, bridge capacity, and other missions.… pic.twitter.com/8tJS5fDPcE

— John Gedmark (@Gedmark) August 9, 2023

The first national security mission for United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket might not occur until April 2025 at the earliest, the U.S. Space Force said.

The third flight for the Vulcan is set to carry a payload for the U.S. Space Force on a mission dubbed USSF-106. But before that happens, Vulcan needs to complete its certification to launch missions under the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 contract.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the USSF’s Space Systems Command (SSC), which oversees the launch procurements for the NSSL missions, said “the second quarter 2025” is when SSC anticipates the first NSSL Vulcan mission.

“The government team has not completed its technical evaluation of the certification criteria and is working closely with ULA on additional data required to complete this evaluation,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “The government anticipates completion of its evaluation and certification in the first quarter of calendar year 2025.”

In a statement to Spaceflight Now, a ULA spokesperson said that it would be ready to launch Vulcan during the first quarter of 2025, adding that the rocket is still stacked (minus the payload) inside the Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) at Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

ULA decided that for its certification process, it would develop and test the Vulcan rocket shoulder-to-shoulder with the U.S. government. The two entities established the Vulcan Certification Plan in 2018, which was based on the New Entrant Certification Guide published in 2011.

During a roundtable discussion with reporters last week, ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno said there were essentially two choices when it came to how to certify Vulcan to fly missions for the Department of Defense.

“You can go with choice A, which is, we’re in a hurry and we’re concerned the government will slow us down. So go away and we’ll call you when we’re done and give you a large amount of data to wade through at the end,” Bruno said. “And that typically requires three or four certification flights.

“Then you have option B, which is, no, we’re comfortable working with the government, so come on in and attend all the meetings and be embedded with us through the entire journey and there’ll be data deliveries all along. And that typically only requires, usually two flights.”

Bruno said the outcome of the second option results in a final data review by the government where the perform an independent verification and then approve the certification. He said they are in the end game of that now.

Ongoing investigation

One of the watch items in the certification process is an anomaly that occurred with one of the two Graphite-Epoxy Motor (GEM) 63XL solid rocket boosters (SRBs) flown during the second certification flight of Vulcan on Oct. 4.

Less than a minute after launch, one of the booster lost part of its nozzle. Despite a loss of thrust, the rocket was able to compensate and successfully completed the rest of the test flight.

Bruno said last week ULA is still drilling down to a root cause of the issue and wasn’t ready to go into detail on that. But he said “it’s not the first time that I have liberated a nozzle in my several decades of building rockets.”

Referencing the investigation so far, he added that “nothing in there surprises me.”

“In terms of the investigation, we have recovered hardware from near the pad. I’ll tell you, there are insulators that failed, that are bonded to the inside of the shell that becomes the nozzle and we recovered parts of those,” Bruno said. “That was pretty fortunate for us. Gave us really quick and early insight.

“So long way of saying, [we have] a pretty good idea what happened and minor modifications that would be necessary and desired to correct that [are] already underway.”

In a statement to Spaceflight Now, the SSC said its investigation concerning the SRB was also ongoing and that “The government team is working closely with ULA to resolve the investigation.”

Bruno said from his perspective, that anomaly shouldn’t stand in the way of certifying Vulcan.

“I can’t speak for the government, but that’s not how the certification plan works. You’re not necessarily expected to fly without observations. You are expected to prove that the architecture of the rocket works and that it would have the performance required to do the missions,” Bruno said.

“It’s not unusual to come through certification with something like that and the process for that, which is also described in the certification plan, is called a ‘joint handling plan.’ So, anything that you see that needs to be dealt with, the way it would be dealt with if you were already certified, goes into that and then runs its own course. And in fact, they can be opportunities to improve the rocket. They can also be liens against future missions where it’s something you want to resolve before you fly again, just like routine business post-certification.”

Bruno said that, as with the rest of the Vulcan development process, the government will be alongside ULA as it responds to the SRB nozzle anomaly.

“We show them everything we do. I mean, they don’t have to ask. They are literally embedded in our team,” Bruno said. “I am making minor modifications to those parts of the nozzle that are involved in this and we’re definitely going to test them and they’ll get all the data. They can be present and witness the test, if they want to.”

ULA in 2025

While ULA completes the certification process for Vulcan, it is also looking at the new year and several more missions than it flew in 2024.

Bruno said ULA has 20 missions on its 2025 manifest, but couched that number by saying that the final tally at the end of the year will partly depend on the readiness of the payloads. He said the 20 launches are split fairly evenly between Atlas 5 rockets and Vulcan, with slightly more for the former.

“You rarely have more flights in the year than you were expecting because you’re at the end of the journey. You are waiting. You’re the last step,” Bruno said in reference to being the launch provider. “You’re waiting for the satellite and so, if they are delayed at all, then typically they move into the next year. They never go away, they just move around.”

With Vulcan potentially waiting until spring to launch again, Bruno said there is the possibility that a launch for Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellite internet constellation could move to the front of the launch line in the new year. Amazon purchased nine launches for its satellites on Atlas 5 rockets and 38 on Vulcan rockets

“It’s possible to have one satellite customer over another and because we have a stockpile of rockets, which is kind of unusual, normally, you build it, you fly it, you build another one. We would be able to do that,” Bruno said. “And I would certainly want anyone who is ready to go to space able to go to space.”

The new year will also be busy for ULA in other respects. It will complete work on Space Launch Complex 3 (SLC-3) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California to support Vulcan launches from the Western Range. It will also roll the final Atlas 5 rocket out of its factory in Decatur, Alabama, and close down that assembly line.

Bruno said they’ll deliver the last two Atlas 5 rockets “in the next couple of months.” He said they are just waiting on two parts from suppliers to finish off those rockets, which will then be moved into storage.

“We expect to fly all except the Starliner Atlases out in ’25 or perhaps early ’26,” Bruno said.

Update 6:14 p.m. EST (2300 UTC): SpaceX landed the Falcon 9 first stage booster on its droneship.

SpaceX completed its third Falcon 9 launch in less than 24 hours with a launch for one of its oldest customers: Luxembourg-based communications company, SES.

Liftoff of the O3b mPOWER 7 and 8 satellites from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center happened near sunset at 5:26 p.m. EST (2226 UTC), which was the close of a nearly 1.5-hour-long launch window. It was be the 90th orbital launch from the Florida spaceport comprising of Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Heading into the launch opportunity, the 45th Weather Squadron forecast so-so conditions at liftoff. Its outlook issued Monday suggested a 55 percent chance of favorable weather at launch with concerns for both cumulus clouds and a violation of the surface electric fields rule.

“Strong high pressure moving off the coast of New England today will settle into the Central Atlantic through mid-week, with the axis to the north of the Spaceport. This feature will block the approaching easterly wave as it moves west, pushing it into the state on Tuesday,” meteorologists wrote. “The arrival of this trough brings deeper moisture and instability, with a higher coverage of onshore moving showers, and occasional lightning is not out of the question.

“Most models show coverage peaking in the late afternoon and evening, potentially overlapping at least the latter part of the primary launch window Tuesday afternoon.”

The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1090, launched for its first mission. It landed on the droneship, ‘Just Read the Instructions,’ about 8.5 minutes after liftoff.

Overcoming power issues

SES began work on the O3b mPOWER satellites in partnership with manufacturer, Boeing, in 2017 when it ordered the construction of seven initial medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites. It began signing up customers for the on orbit broadband service in 2020 with the likes of Carnival Corporation for its cruise ships and Orange, which supports internet service in Africa.

The first two O3b mPOWER satellites were launched in 2022 and were followed by two more pairs of satellites in 2023. SES began providing service through the satellites in spring 2024.

“We are very excited that O3b mPOWER is now ready to serve our customers around the world. Over the last few years, our SES team, along with our technology partners across space and ground segments, have worked tirelessly to bring our O3b mPOWER system online,” said Adel Al-Saleh, CEO of SES, in an April 2024 statement. “I’m proud to say that all the core infrastructure is deployed, tested and ready on a global basis.”

However the first O3b mPOWER satellites ran into electrical problems. Ahead of the launch of the third pair of satellites in November, SES told investors that it documented “an increased number of sporadic power module switch offs” within satellites 1-4, which resulted in “a few non-recoverable events.

“After a comprehensive investigation where the causes were identified by Boeing and SES, mitigations for these events will be put in place for the initial satellites that include updated operational procedures and leveraging elements of the constellation in a resilient configuration, which will enable the expected high-performance services to customers,” SES wrote in a YTD 2023 financial statement. “With the operations of this initial O3b mPOWER constellation, in combination with the existing O3b MEO constellation, SES expects it can support its currently signed O3b mPOWER customers, as well as future customers and market growth.”

The power issues were determined to cause those satellites to experience operational life that “will be significantly lower than previously expected.” A plan was developed to replace the faulty power modules on the remaining satellites left on the contract at the time (7-11) and to add two additional satellites to the constellation.

SES currently plans to deploy 13 O3b mPOWER satellites, with satellites 9-11 set to launch in 2025 and the final pair in 2026.

“The total amount of remaining U.S. C-band clearing cost reimbursements expected to be received in future is now approximately $150 million and SES is continuing to engage with insurers regarding the claim of $472 million relating to O3b mPOWER satellites 1-4,” SES wrote in a statement covering YTD and Q3 2024 financial results.

The company said that as of April 2024, it said its second-generation MEO constellation was supporting “more than 15 million end users”.

The satellites orbit approximately 8,000 km (4,971 mi) above the Earth’s surface at an inclination of 70 degrees.

The latest third-generation Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite launched to orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Monday night. Unlike previous GPS missions though, the launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket marked a first-of-its-kind mission for the U.S. Space Force.

The launch, previously known simply as “RRT-1,” actually stands for “Rapid Response Trailblazer.” Onboard was the GPS 3 Space Vehicle (SV) 07 (GPS 3 SV-07). Lockheed Martin, the satellite’s manufacturer, confirmed successful signal acquisition less than two hours after the launch at 7:52 p.m. EST (0052 UTC).

The spacecraft will continue to operation out of Lockheed Martin’s Denver Launch & Checkout Operations Center “until its official acceptance into the current operational GPS 31-satellite constellation,” the company said.

Originally, the spacecraft was scheduled to launch onboard a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket. The launch was one of five missions awarded to ULA as part of order year three for the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 contract.

However, the Space Force’s Assured Access to Space (AATS) is still working through data connected to the two certification flights of Vulcan and has not yet approved the rocket to begin flying NSSL missions.

In order to get the satellite and its capabilities on orbit in a more expedited fashion, multiple portions of the Space Force and Lockheed Martin, the satellite’s manufacturer, worked to pivot from one rocket to another in a comparatively short timeframe.

“This launch was a remarkable achievement that highlights the Space Force’s ability to execute high priority launches of major space systems on a significantly reduced timescale,” said Col. Jim Horne, senior materiel leader of Launch Execution for AATS. “As an added benefit, it also demonstrates flexibility to adjust our manifest to minimize the impact of Vulcan delays.

“In this case, revised planning for this RRT began at launch minus-five months instead of our normal launch minus-24 months. It not only demonstrates the teams’ ability to respond to emergent constellation needs but is a testament to our flexibility and responsiveness to deliver capability as rapidly as Space Vehicle readiness allows. In this case, it’s not just the warfighter, but also the nation and our allies around the world that rely on GPS on a daily basis.”

The shortened timeframe not only provided logistical challenges for the Space Force, but for Lockheed Martin as well. Part of the shift involved determining how the GPS 3 SV-07 would make it from Lockheed Martin’s facilities in Littleton, Colorado, out to Florida.

Normally, a spacecraft like this would travel by air, but because the typical military aircraft that would be used for such an operation were tied up in response operations related to Hurricane Milton, the satellite had to make a 2,337-mile trek by road. It arrived in Florida six days after departing Colorado, according to Lockheed Martin.

“We supported our customer’s vision for an accelerated launch of this GPS satellite, ultimately helping them achieve quick-turn operational readiness,” said Malik Musawwir, vice president of Navigation Systems at Lockheed Martin in a statement. “Time is of the essence for national security missions, and we quickly delivered this critical capability for the Space Force to support rapid demand for secure, advanced positioning, navigation, and timing signals.”

Additionally, the company said part of the pre-launch preparation work included equipping the spacecraft with a secure military code, referred to as an “M-code.”

“All GPS III space vehicles, including SV07, are equipped with M-code. M-Code is an advanced, new signal designed to improve anti-jamming and anti-spoofing, as well as increase secure access to military GPS signals for U.S. and allied armed forces,” Lockheed Martin said in a statement. “GPS III space vehicles provide up to eight times more anti-jamming power than GPS II space vehicles, and M-code has been in operational acceptance since 2020.”

The comparatively fast pivot from one launch provider to another is an example of what Space Force leaders emphasized during the recent Space Force Association’s Spacepower Conference as highly important for the government: rapid responsiveness in space.

In a post-launch statement, Col. Andrew Menschner, the Mission Delta 31 mission commander, noted that the pivot reduced what is normally a six-month processing window for a GPS 3 SV down to about three months.

“This was an amazing effort across multiple teams and agencies,” Menschner said. “This launch showed our ability to respond quickly to an operational need, such as an on-orbit vehicle failure of the GPS constellation, as well as demonstrating our willingness to challenge traditional timelines associated with launches in response to a realistic scenario.”

The block three GPS satellites have a predicted lifespan of about 15 years. This series of spacecraft are nicknamed after famous explorers and pioneers. SV-07 was named ‘Sally Ride,’ the first American woman in space.

Update 10:37 a.m. EST (1537 UTC): The first stage booster successfully landed on the droneship.

Before sunrise Tuesday morning, SpaceX completed its final mission supporting the National Reconnaissance Office in 2024.

The Falcon 9 rocket supporting the NROL-149 mission lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at 5:19 a.m. PST (8:19 a.m. EST, 1319 UTC).

The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, B1063, made its 22nd flight on this mission. It’s previous flights included NROL-113, NROL167, DART and 14 Starlink missions.

A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1063 touched down on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You.’ This marked the 114th booster landing on OCISLY and the 384th booster landing to date.

Onboard the rocket are an undisclosed number of satellites, which are believed to be Starshield, the government variant of the Starlink satellites.

Update 8:43 p.m. EST (0143 UTC): SpaceX landed the first stage booster on the droneship following liftoff.

Against a cloudy Florida sky, SpaceX launched its latest Falcon 9 rocket with a payload that has not been officially identified.

The mission, according to SpaceX and the FAA was referred to as “RRT-1.” Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened Monday, Dec. 16, at 7:52 p.m. EST (0052 UTC).

Weather conditions were a watch item for SpaceX with this mission. The company cited high winds at the pad its reason for standing down from Friday’s launch attempt and Monday may also prove challenging.

On Sunday, the 45th Weather Squadron issued a launch weather forecast suggesting a 75 percent chance of acceptable weather for liftoff on Monday. Meteorologists listed liftoff winds and cumulus clouds as the primary concerns.

“Gusty onshore flow with scattered coastal showers will continue for the next few days due to a very strong high pressure system in the Northeast US and a surface trough in the northwest Caribbean,” launch weather officers wrote in their forecast. “By [Monday] evening, the high will begin to slide eastward into the Atlantic, allowing for a gradual relaxing of the pressure gradient.

“However, a coastal surface trough will develop along the Florida east coast accompanied by increased moisture from the southeast. This will bring scattered onshore moving showers throughout the afternoon and evening hours.”

The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1085 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for a fourth time. It previously supported the launches of Crew-9 as well as Starlink 10-5 and Starlink 6-77.

Roughly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1085 touched down on the SpaceX droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas.’ This marked the 90th booster landing on ASOG and the 383rd booster landing to date.

Mystery payload

Prior to the launch, neither SpaceX nor the mission’s customer made a public statement about what payload was onboard the Friday night Falcon 9 flight.

Some speculated online that it was a third-generation Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite manufactured by Lockheed Martin. A point of rationale is the mission timeline for RRT-1 is strikingly similar to that of the last GPS 3 Space Vehicle to launch, GPS 3 SV06, which launched on Jan. 18, 2023.

Another data point is that the hazard warnings are also reminiscent of the SV06 launch.

And a fresh evidence supporting this idea is the launch timeline – it’s almost exactly the same as well (GPS III SV06 on the left, “RRT-1” on the right). pic.twitter.com/FqPVIdME7V

— Cosmic Penguin (@Cosmic_Penguin) December 13, 2024

However, the Falcon 9 second stage on this mission has a grey band around it, which is used to help regulate the temperature of the propellant on the upper stage. Typically, that’s used for missions with significantly long coast phases, like those launching on a direct to geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) or a highly-elliptical Earth orbit (HEO).

If the payload is a GPS satellite it would be destined for a medium Earth orbit (MEO) about 12,500 miles in altitude.

According to the list of National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 contract launches assigned to SpaceX, the only ones named as GPS missions are GPS 3 SV10 and GPS 3 F-1, the latter of which is the next generation of GPS satellite and will launch on a Falcon Heavy.

If this is in fact a mission on behalf of the U.S. Space Force, SpaceX does have a number of other missions listed under this procurement process that haven’t launched. Those include USSF-36, USSF-31 and USSF-70.

The RRT-1 mission wasn’t brought up as a topic of discussion during the three-day Space Force Association’s Spacepower Conference, which wrapped up on Thursday.

GPS powers everything from power grids to emergency services. We’re evolving GPS to stay ahead—fortifying civilian infrastructure and military operations with advanced signals, jam resistance and more. Click to learn how GPS shapes our world:

— Lockheed Martin (@LockheedMartin) December 10, 2024

Update 6:44 p.m. EST (2344 UTC): SpaceX confirms deployment of the Starlink satellites.

SpaceX launched its latest batch of Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base Friday afternoon. It came as the U.S. Space Force’s Assured Access to Space (AATS) continues work to ensure resiliency from its two primary spaceports that’s seeing far more orbital launches than it has historically experienced.

Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink 11-2 mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) happened at 1:55 p.m. PST (4:55 p.m. EST, 2155 UTC). This was the 87th Starlink launch so far this year.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1082 in the SpaceX fleet, made its ninth trip to space. It previously launched USSF-62, OneWeb Launch 20 and six previous Starlink missions.

A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1082 touched down on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You.’ This marked the 113th booster landing for OCISLY and the 382nd booster landing to date.

Shoring up launch capability

The Falcon 9 launch came on the heels of the conclusion of the Space Force Association’s second annual Spacepower Conference in Orlando, Florida. The gathering of Guardians, contractors and academics covered a range of topics from preparing to combat current and future threats to on-orbit assets to various acquisition strategies for desired space-related capabilities.

Among the panels throughout the three days was a keynote address from Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, the Program Executive Officer (PEO) for Assured Access to Space (AATS) for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC). She also serves as the Commander of Space Launch Delta (SLD) 45, the Director of the Eastern Range and the Director of Launch and Range Operations for SSC.

Speaking to the convention on Thursday in her AATS PEO role, Panzenhagen said that so far this year, the Space Force has supported 136 mission between Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg.

“Just to give you an idea of the pace that we’re launching at, with today being December 12, we’ll probably have at least eight more launches before the end of this calendar year,” Panzenhagen said. “Now let’s compare. Globally, in that same time period, calendar year 2024, there’s been about 230 launches. So, the Space Force is providing launch capacity at its spaceports for about 60 percent of the global missions.

“So, most of the launches in the world are happening in at the Space Force’s spaceports and about 40 percent of the global missions are just from the Eastern Range, which is amazing.”

Panzenhagen said that as part of the organization’s “spaceport of the future” work, it has about $1.3 billion to use from FY2024 through FY2028 to upgrade launch infrastructure at both the Eastern Range and the Western Range.

She said in order to support boosting launch capacity and increasing resilience at their spaceports, AATS is working to “eliminate critical days.”

“For us, ‘critical days’ are days when you’re doing something maintenance-wise that puts too much risk to be able to do a launch mission. So, like you’re digging and could potentially cut fiber or something like that,” Panzenhagen explained. “We’re working on eliminating those.”

She said other steps are being taken, like burying power lines, increasing reliable access to water for things like deluge systems, expanding roadways to detract from traffic backups related to moving launch hardware and more. Panzenhagen said they have 192 such infrastructure projects over those named fiscal years and so far, they are on track.

Back in view

The Starlink 11-2 mission is also notable in that it returned to what the public has grown accustomed to seeing from SpaceX in most other launches: a launch livestream that’s advertised prior to liftoff.

Beginning with the Starlink 9-13 mission on Nov. 24, SpaceX decided to proceed into the launch of its Falcon 9 rockets from Vandenberg without prior notice on its X account (formerly Twitter) or posting a link to watch the final five minutes of the countdown and stepping into liftoff.

Instead, it would suddenly publish a launch livestream anywhere from 44 seconds to more than a minute following liftoff from SLC-4E. The Starlink 11-2 is the first West Coast mission since Starlink 9-12 to include a “Watch” button on its launch page.

SpaceX didn’t provide a public reason for the change nor a reason for shifting back to what the public was accustomed to seeing.

The man who may very well be NASA’s 15th Administrator made his first public address since receiving the nomination for the role.

Jared Isaacman made an appearance at the Space Force Association’s Spacepower Conference in Orlando on Wednesday, having previously spoken at last year’s inaugural conference. While the event was billed as a discussion on his recent spaceflight, his comments before a room full of U.S. Space Force Guardians and commercial companies garnered additional interest given his nomination by President-Elect Donald Trump.

During a roughly 50-minute conversation with Matt Anderson, the SFA’s chief growth officer, Isaacman made a notable point to not only give acknowledgment to SpaceX when asked about Starship development or his missions onboard Crew Dragon, but also gave multiple kudos to other commercial launch providers.

“I love all about the commercial space industry right now. Just to point out, they are all generally doing the same thing, which is putting a lot of their own dollars on the line because they believe in the future that it holds,” Isaacman said. “There’s so much uncertainty around it too, right? There will almost assuredly be some space economy that’s up there and we’re gonna need a lot of people in this room to protect it when it fully develops.

“But yeah, Blue Origin’s putting a ton of their own money on the line. Love everything that Rocket Lab did. It’s another small, scrappy startup that’s doing great things. And for sure, SpaceX and their approach of fully reusable first and second stage, pretty awesome stuff.”

In the wake of Isaacman’s announcement as Trump’s desired NASA Administrator, there are those who expressed concerns with his close ties with both SpaceX and its founder, Elon Musk, who is one half of the proposed Department of Government Efficiency, which will make budget cutting recommendations to lawmakers.

In beginning the conversation, Anderson made clear that the conversation wouldn’t delve into topics concerning the nomination and didn’t mention Musk in his questioning. But during part of the conversation, he did ask Isaacman about his experience working as a government contractor through his aviation venture, Draken International.

“Shockingly, the government does do business very differently than the rest of the country, so I got an education in that and certainly, a lot of exposure to how other defense contractors operate.”

When asked about the “great power competition with China,” Isaacman said stressed that the U.S. should remain a leader in various space capabilities. He argued that “reusability is going to open up this domain in such a new way that we have no idea what the future may hold, but I know we can’t be second in that.”

“We are going to inevitably have a presence on the Moon and then on Mars and we’re just going to keep making the high ground higher and that is going to necessitate the contributions and really the protection from everybody in this room and those that aren’t here,” Isaacman said. “I think it’s imperative that we are first in that regard and that we lead the way.”

Polaris Program uncertainty

Much of the conversation on Wednesday concerned Isaacman’s two trips to space, first with Inspiration4 in 2021 and most recently with Polaris Dawn.

In a nod to the Space Force Guardians in the room and watching the conversation virtually, Isaacman talked about flying some of their service rank patches during those flights. He said one in particular stood out in his memory.

“[A former cadet] asked if I could fly his rank again, except his captain bars, which I was like this must be done because I realized his last name was Kirk,” Isaacman said. “I was like, ‘Captain Kirk’s rank is definitely going to space with us. So I filmed it on Polaris Dawn and sent him a copy of the video.”

Isaacman said while the Polaris Dawn mission didn’t fundamentally break ground when it comes to the capabilities that are possible in low Earth orbit, he said part of their goal was to expand the understanding about things like how different people react when experiencing microgravity for a relatively brief duration of a few days.

He also addressed one of the elephants in the room: what becomes of the Polaris Program if he we to be confirmed as the next NASA administrator. Isaacman was responding to a question about what he sees next for the second and third Polaris missions, the latter of which has been billed as the first crewed launch of SpaceX’s Starship rocket.

“The future of the Polaris Program is a little bit of a question mark at the moment. May wind up on hold for a little bit, we’ll have to see,” Isaacman said. “But overall, I’m just super passionate about humankind’s future among the stars and what’s approaching because it’s going to be a lot. It’s going to arrive a lot quicker than probably many of us think.”

SpaceX launched its latest Falcon 9 shortly after midnight on Sunday, adding 23 more Starlink satellites to its growing mega-constellation.

The midnight hour launch featured 13 satellites which have Direct to Cell capabilities. Liftoff of the Starlink 12-5 mission from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 12:12:30 a.m. EST (0512:30 UTC).

SapceX confirmed the 23 satellites were deployed successfully a little over an hour after launch. Tracking data confirmed the satellites were in a roughly 293×286 km orbit, inclined at 43 degrees to the equator.

A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9 first-stage booster landed on the SpaceX droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas.’ This marked the 89th booster landing on ASOG and the 381st booster landing to date. The first stage for this mission was flying for a second time after previously serving as one of the two Falcon Heavy side boosters on the GOES-U mission. The tail numbers of the boosters that flew that mission for NOAA and NASA in the June this year were B1072 or B1086, SpaceX did not differentiate which of those flew on Sunday.

With the most recent launch of DTC Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Dec. 5, SpaceX announced that it completed its first orbital shell for that part of the constellation. As of that payload deployment, SpaceX had launched 362 DTC Starlink satellites.

The first Starlink satellite direct to cell phone constellation is now complete.

This will enable unmodified cellphones to have Internet connectivity in remote areas.

Bandwidth per beam is only ~10Mb, but future constellations will be much more capable. https://t.co/wJHMGEzzE4

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 5, 2024