A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch late Friday night also will include a landing at Vandenberg Space Force Base but another firm’s Saturday morning mission has been delayed.
The two-stage rocket launch packed with the Transporter-13 payload is set to blast off during a 17-minute window opening at 11:39 p.m. Friday, SpaceX said.
On Friday, SpaceX said the team would target an 11:43 p.m. launch.
If needed, SpaceX has a backup opportunity on Saturday at the same time.
For the second time this week, a first-stage booster, this one making its 13th trek, will return to Vandenberg, landing slightly more than seven minutes west of its launch pad. That means sonic booms could sound over Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties.
A dedicated rideshare mission, Transporter-13 boasts 74 payloads on this flight, including cubesats, microsats, hosted payloads, a re-entry capsule, and an orbital transfer vehicle carrying 11 of those payloads to be deployed at a later time.
The rocket will carry NASA’s second heliophysics mission of the week, following PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere), which launched Tuesday night from Vandenberg.
The new addition to the heliophysics fleet has been dubbed Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer, or EZIE.
“EZIE is a mission made up of three small satellites that are gong to study the auroral electrojets, which are the currents between the Earth’s upper atmosphere that drive the aurora.” said Joe Westlake, director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division.
“They create the circuit between what happens in space and the effects on Earth,” he added. “That data connects the puzzle of what we’re looking at with PUNCH from the sun to the Earth, and that puzzle helps us to understand and better predict the space weather that affects us here on Earth.”
The initial separation of the various payloads, including the EZIE trio, will last more than two hours after liftoff.
SpaceX said a livestream of the mission will be 15 minutes before liftoff and can be found on its website or on X@SpaceX.
Firefly Aerospace hoped to launch its sixth Alpha rocket mission as soon as Saturday morning, the firm announced earlier this month. Various factors can delay launch plans.
But Friday afternoon, Firefly announced its launch had been delayed due to a Western Range constraint, which wasn’t specified.
“The rocket and payload remain healthy and ready for launch,” Firefly officials said adding they were working to determine the next opportunity.
The window for the small rocket at Space Launch Complex-2 spanned from 6:25 a.m. to 7:17 a.m. The Texas-based firm has dubbed the mission “Message in a Bottle.”
The rocket is set to carry Lockheed Martin’s LM 400 technology demonstration to prove out the risk-reduction and pathfinding efforts the company has done for its multi-mission satellite bus, or frame.
“The Firefly team is proud to launch another Lockheed Martin mission as we continue to push the limits in achieving a more responsive and resilient future in space,” said Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly Aerospace.
The sixth Alpha liftoff will be the second mission Firefly is launching for Lockheed Martin and the first of Firefly’s contract with the company for up to 25 missions over five years.
The rocket is designed to carry smaller payloads and has a capability of lifting more than 2,205 pounds to low-Earth orbit.
The Alpha rocket had a dramatic debut when it failed shortly after launching from Vandenberg in September 2021.
Firefly’s fifth Alpha rocket lifted off in July 2024 from Vandenberg as the new launcher has continued to build upon its successes and captured millions of dollars in missions for future deliveries of satellites.
Once the mission is rescheduled, Firefly will host the Alpha Message in a Booster livestream starting approximately 30 minutes before liftoff on its YouTube channel.