UTC —00:00:00
Falcon 9 Block 5 | SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer F

Overview

Falcon 9 Block 5 | SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer F

To Be Determined

Space Launch Complex 4E, Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

September 30, 2026 — 00:00 UTC

Image credit: SpaceX

SpaceX logo

Launch Provider

SpaceX

Country
United States of America
Founded
2002
Leadership
CEO: Elon Musk
Launch Record
694 success, 15 failed

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars. SpaceX operates from many pads, on the East Coast of the US they operate from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and historic LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. They also operate from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, usually for polar launches. Another launch site is being developed at Boca Chica, Texas.

Mission

SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer F

Type
Government/Top Secret
Target Orbit
Polar Orbit

Tranche 1 Transport Layer F is one of six missions by the United States Space Force Space Development Agency (SDA) for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer constellation, which will provide assured, resilient, low-latency military data and connectivity worldwide to the full range of warfighter platforms from Low Earth Orbit satellites. The constellation will be interconnected with Optical Inter-Satellite Links (OISLs) which have significantly increased performance over existing radio frequency crosslinks. It is expected to operate over Ka band, have stereo coverage and be dynamically networked for simpler hand-offs, greater bandwidth and fault tolerance.

Falcon 9 Block 5

Launch Vehicle

Falcon 9 Block 5

Height
70.0 m
Diameter
3.65 m
Liftoff Mass
549.0 t
Liftoff Thrust
7607.0 kN
Mass to LEO
22800.0 kg
Mass to GTO
8300.0 kg
Reusable
Yes
Maiden Flight
2018-05-11
Launch Success
612 / 614
Consecutive Success
315

Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit. The Block 5 variant is the fifth major interval aimed at improving upon the ability for rapid reusability.

Launch Site

Space Launch Complex 4E, Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) is a launch site at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, U.S. The pad was previously used by Atlas and Titan rockets between 1963 and 2005. The pad was built for use by Atlas-Agena rockets, but was later rebuilt to handle Titan rockets.

Latest Updates

Adding launch

October 31, 2023 — 19:59 UTC

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