SpaceX is making ready to launch its fifth launch of the 12 months on behalf of the Nationwide Reconnaissance Workplace (NRO) shortly after midnight on the West Coast.
The NROL-126 mission will ship the most recent batch of the NRO’s so-called ‘proliferated structure’ to low Earth orbit. The payload is believed to be the federal government variant of Starlink satellites, known as ‘Starshield.’
Liftoff from House Launch Complicated 4 East (SLC-4E) is ready for no sooner than 12:10 a.m. PST (3:10 a.m. EST, 0810 UTC).
Somewhat greater than eight minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9 first stage booster will land on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Of Course I Nonetheless Love You,’ positioned within the Pacific Ocean.
If profitable, it will mark the 111th booster touchdown on OCISLY and the 377th booster touchdown so far.
When first saying the company’s proliferated structure, the NRO mentioned there could be six launches for the mission in 2024. Since then, they’ve added two further missions, NROL-153 and NROL-192, that are scheduled to launch earlier than the tip of the 12 months.
“To remain forward of the competitors and guarantee it could possibly proceed to function in a heightened menace setting, the NRO is modernizing its structure in area and on the bottom – delivering extra functionality sooner with elevated resilience,” the NRO wrote in a prelaunch press package. “A higher variety of satellites – massive and small, authorities and business, in a number of orbits – will ship an order of magnitude extra indicators and pictures than is obtainable at the moment.
“The NRO continues to construct and fortify the biggest authorities constellation in historical past – enabled by an particularly dynamic 18-month interval, ending late this 12 months, during which roughly 12 missions may have launched, placing greater than 100 payloads on orbit.”
These missions are listed under, together with the launch dates for these which have already flown:
- June 22, 2023 – NROL-68 (ULA – Delta 4 Heavy)
- Sept. 10, 2023 – NROL-107/Silentbarker (ULA – Atlas 5 551)
- March 21, 2024 – NROL-123 (Rocket Lab – Electron)
- April 9, 2024 – NROL-70 (ULA – Delta 4 Heavy)
- Could 22, 2024 – NROL-146 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)
- June 28, 2024 – NROL-186 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)
- Sept. 5, 2024 – NROL-113 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)
- Oct. 24, 2024 – NROL-167 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)
- NET Nov. 30, 2024 – NROL-126 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)
- NET Dec. 2024 – NROL-149 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)
- NET Dec. 2024 – NROL-153 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)
- NET Dec. 2024 – NROL-192 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)
The variety of satellites onboard the NROL-126 mission has not been disclosed publicly.
