For the second time this year, a Falcon 9 rocket will launch cargo for the military’s new generation of missile-tracking and data-relay satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
The SpaceX rocket and its payload — reportedly 13 satellites — will try to lift off Thursday morning from Space Launch Complex-4 on the South Base.
“We’re excited for a successful launch here,” said Mike Eppolito, Tranche 0 program director for the Space Development Agency.
The mission is scheduled for 7:26 a.m. with the launch window remaining open for approximately an hour, officials said.
“Everything is looking for tomorrow and actually the window on Friday is looking good at well,” Eppolito added. “At this point, we aren’t expecting weather to be an issue.”
More than seven minutes after liftoff, the rocket’s first-stage booster reportedly will return to Vandenberg, touching down on a landing site just west of the launch pad.
That return to the landing site means residents in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties likely will hear sonic booms.
The Space Development Agency’s second West Coast mission of 2023 follows another that occurred in early April when 10 satellites — two data-relay space vehicles along with eight missile-tracking satellites — arrived in orbit.
The satellites will make up what the military has dubbed the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, or PWSA, employing a new approach to buying and launching missile-tracking and data-relay spacecraft.
Rather than taking 10 years to build and spending that amount of time in orbit, the new system is designed to have hundreds of satellites proliferating space using a spiral development philosophy.
The current phase is dubbed Tranche 0 and includes satellites built by York Space Systems, Lockheed Martin and SpaceX, according to SDA.
A third launch, involving the Missile Defense Agency, reportedly will deliver four satellites built by L3 Harris later this year. Also aboard the mission will be the MDA’s Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) satellites.
Together, the MDA and SDA satellites will be able to view the same test articles at the same time from the same orbit.
SDA officials said they plan to field the system’s first operational generation of satellites in late 2024.
That phase, known as Tranche 1, will include 126 transport layer satellites, 35 tracking satellites and 12 tactical demonstration satellites (called T1DES).
Meanwhile, SDA recently announced that the agency had awarded the contract for the Tranche 2 transport layer satellites, a deal worth $1.5 billion for 72 spacecraft from Northrop Grumman Space Systems and Lockheed Martin.
Those first satellites should be ready for delivery in 2026.
SpaceX rocket launches and landings typically attract onlookers to the Lompoc Valley.
Vandenberg has restricted access, but several locations around the Lompoc Valley provide views of the launch and landing sites, which are south of West Ocean Avenue (Highway 246).
The locations include west of Lompoc, the peak of Harris Grade Road, and near the intersection of Moonglow and Stardust roads.
Providence Landing Park, at 699 Mercury Ave. in Vandenberg Village, also is a popular gathering spot, along with West Ocean Avenue west of the Lompoc’s city limits.
A live broadcast of the mission can be found 15 minutes before the scheduled liftoff on the SpaceX website or its YouTube channel.