Scheduled for (UTC) | 2024-11-30, 08:10 |
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Scheduled for (local) | 2024-11-30, 03:10 (EST) |
Launch site | SLC-4E, Vandenberg SFB, California, USA |
Booster | B1088-1 (a rare brand-new booster!) |
Landing | Of Course I Still Love You |
Payload | NROL-126 |
Customer | National Reconnaissance Office |
Mission success criteria | Successful delivery of payload to Geostationary Transfer Orbit |
Webcasts
Stream | Link |
---|---|
Space Affairs | https://youtube.com/watch?v=1igMQu0vUag |
Spaceflight Now | https://www.youtube.com/@SpaceflightNowVideo/streams |
NASASpaceflight | https://www.youtube.com/@NASASpaceflight/streams |
The Launch Pad | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM-we7fdhtg |
SpaceX | https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1862771327394009232 |
The Space Devs | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwI55GWsCS4 |
Stats
Sourced from NextSpaceflight and r/SpaceX:
☑️ 41st launch from SLC-4E this year
☑️ 6 days, 2:44:30 turnaround for this pad
☑️ 53rd consecutive successful Falcon 9 launch (if successful)
☑️ 112th landing on OCISLY
☑️ 380th Falcon family booster landing, 394th Falcon recovery attempt
☑️ 119th Falcon 9 mission this year, 405th Falcon 9 mission overall
☑️ 121st SpaceX mission of 2024, 421st mission overall (excluding Starship flights)
☑️ 125th SpaceX launch this year, 437th SpaceX launch overall (including Starship flights)
Mission info
Fifth batch of satellites for a reconnaissance satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for the National Reconnaissance Office to provide imaging and other reconnaissance capabilities.
This mission will be the maiden flight of B1088. Not often we see new boosters these days!
SpaceX seem to be having issues with their webcast, but it appears that liftoff has occurred.
Stage 1 landing confirmed!
MECO, stage separation, M-vac ignition, and fairing separation.
https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1862788510291485044
Deployment of 20 @Starlink satellites confirmed
I guess we now know part of what was on this mission…
https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1862913184015024327
Falcon 9 launches the @NatReconOfc’s NROL-126 mission and 20 Starlink satellites to orbit, completing our 100th successful launch from pad 4E in California
Either the NRO’s payload is really light, or some of these “Starlink” sats are actually Starshield sats.