A Pegasus XL rocket launched successfully off the Central Coast early Sunday morning on a mission to prove the capability of placing a small satellite into space on relativity short notice.
Northrop Grumman’s air-launched rocket headed to space at 1:11 a.m. after being released at approximately 40,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean from under the belly of its modified Stargazer L-1011 jet.
The aircraft carrying the three-stage winged rocket had taken off about an hour earlier from the airfield at Vandenberg Space Force Base.
“Today’s successful launch is a clear signal to our strategic competitors that we will not cede access to space,” said Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond from U.S. Space Force. “When I challenged the Space and Missile Systems Center about a year ago to demonstrate a responsive space capability, they accepted and delivered!”
The team supplied a space domain awareness satellite ready for launch in record time, Raymond added, noting what normally would have required two to five years instead took 11 months.
“The space domain is defined by speed,” Raymond said. “And with this effort, we demonstrated the kind of speed it will take to win. We executed a ‘21-day call-up’ to get a satellite on orbit – pulling the payload, mating it with the rocket and integrating the combined package onto the aircraft.
“Agile, responsive capability development, combined with our ability to rapidly launch and insert capabilities into space where we want, when we want, will deny our competitors the perceived benefits of beginning a conflict in, or extending a conflict to, space,” Raymond added.
Col. Robert Long, who assumed command of Space Launch Delta 30 during a ceremony Friday at Vandenberg, gave final permission for the launch to occur.
“It takes a resilient team providing agile services and responsiveness to our launch customers for mission success,” Long said.
(U.S. Space Force photo)
Typically, Vandenberg representatives send out notices alerting the public of an upcoming launch that might be seen or heard, a step lacking for Sunday’s mission.
The tactically responsive mission aimed to provide “speed, agility, and flexibility” into the launch business to respond to dynamic changes either in space or a hotspot on Earth to meet the needs of the U.S. military commanders.
“I am very pleased with the success of this tactical launch demonstrating rapid and responsive technologies, and what it means for the continuous Space Force support to the warfighter,” said Lt. Col. Ryan Rose, chief, Small Launch and Targets Division at the Space and Missile Systems Center.
“The team completed the launch vehicle design, build, integration and testing in only four months from contract award, and then executed the launch within a few weeks of call-up.”
This mission was a first-of-its-kind effort that has already identified several constraints and lessons learned, according to a U.S. Space Force written statement.
Additional TacRL demonstrations and launches, dubbed TacRL-3 and TacRL-4, are currently in planning stages for launch in 2022 and 2023, according to Space Force representatives.
Sunday’s mission marked the first Pegasus launch off the Central Coast since 2013.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.