A pair of satellites to boost communication in the Arctic region for government and commercial purposes are set to finally make their trek to orbit this weekend from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
Liftoff of the SpaceX rocket carrying Space Norway’s Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission will aim for 7:02 p.m. Sunday.
If needed, a backup opportunity is available at 6:58 p.m. Monday.
It will be the 22nd flight for the first-stage booster, which is expected to land on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship positioned in the Pacific Ocean after completing its chores.
The rocket will deliver the satellites into a Molniya transfer orbit, or highly elliptical orbit, designed to ensure continuous coverage over the northern areas. Plans call for the highest orbit altitude to be 27,030 miles when the craft fly over the north and the lowest orbit altitude at 5,011 miles in the south.
Deployment of the satellites will occur 42 and 47 minutes after liftoff, according to SpaceX.
Onboard the satellites are payloads from the Norwegian Armed Forces, the U.S. Space Force and commercial satellite operator Viasat.
Additionally, a Norwegian-developed payload will measure radiation levels.
Northrop Grumman Corp. delivered the two-satellite constellation to Vandenberg in late June for what was expected to be a July launch.
However, a July 11 liftoff of Starlink satellites temporarily grounded Falcon and kept the Arctic mission on Earth a couple of weeks longer.
The twin craft, each weighing 2 tons or about the size of an elephant, will represent a different approach for the U.S. military.
“ASBM pioneers a new path for hybrid government-commercial missions,” said Brandon White, vice president and general manager of tactical space systems for Northrop Grumman. “Northrop Grumman’s work with ASBM showcases our decades of on-orbit experience and end-to-end space technology expertise, delivering coverage to one of the most hard-to-reach regions of the globe.”
The satellites employ Northrop Grumman’s GEOStar-3 platform previously used for more than 40 missions. The spacecraft bus, or frame, provides power, propulsion, communications, command and data handling, thermal control, and guidance and navigational control.
The satellites will be outfitted with various instruments to carry out the missions, such as the U.S. Space Force’s Enhanced Polar System-Recapitalization (EPS-R) payload.
Designed for secure military satellite communication, EPS-R will be the first operational U.S. military payload hosted on a commercial space vehicle operated by an international partner, officials noted.
Viasat says this will be the first highly elliptical orbit mission carrying commercial broadband payloads. It’s also the first time the Viasat network will incorporate payloads in this orbit providing dedicated Arctic coverage.
Space Norway said a mission to improve communication in the Arctic region dates back to 2012 and has moved toward launch since idea first came up more than a decade ago.
A live webcast of the mission is scheduled to begin about 15 minutes before liftoff and can be found at spacex.com and on X @SpaceX (formerly Twitter).