The fourth mission of April for SpaceX from Vandenberg Space Force Base will deliver a pair of commercial Earth-observation satellites while also bringing back-to-back landings for the first-stage booster.
The Falcon 9 rocket’s launch is planned for Wednesday morning from Space Launch Complex-4 on the South Base.
The mission reportedly will occur between 11:30 a.m. and 11:55 a.m. Wednesday, although SpaceX had not released the planned launch time on Monday evening.
For this flight, the first-stage booster will return to Vandenberg seven to eight minutes after liftoff.
A return to the landing site means sonic booms are likely for those in Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties.
Another Falcon rocket launched April 11 also included the landing of the booster at the base, instead of the droneship.
This week’s rocket will deliver a pair of commercial Earth-observation satellites dubbed WorldView Legion 1 and 2, built by Maxar Space Systems.
The pair are the first two of six planned for the WorldView Legion constellation.
“WorldView Legion will extend the quality and capability of our industry-leading constellation, redefining Earth observation constellation performance and providing customers with unprecedented access to timely, actionable insights that help drive mission success,” said Dan Smoot, CEO for Maxar Intelligence.
WorldView Legion data will be used for various purposes, including national security, monitoring oil spills, assessing natural disasters and more.
The satellite buses, or frames, were the first two completed at the Maxar manufacturing locations in Palo Alto and San Jose.
Launch of the WorldView Legion satellites will occur about two years later than planned.
Vandenberg has played a key role for WorldView as the launch site for earlier versions of the craft aboard United Launch Alliance’s Delta II and Atlas V rockets between 2007 and 2016.
So far in April at Vandenberg, SpaceX has carried out two Starlink missions plus another to deliver a U.S. Space Force weather satellite into orbit.
A live webcast of the mission is scheduled to begin on the SpaceX account on X about 15 minutes before liftoff.