SpaceX is making ready to launch its fifth launch of the 12 months on behalf of the Nationwide Reconnaissance Workplace (NRO) shortly after midnight on the West Coast.
The NROL-126 mission will ship the most recent batch of the NRO’s so-called ‘proliferated structure’ to low Earth orbit. The payload is believed to be the federal government variant of Starlink satellites, known as ‘Starshield.’
Liftoff from House Launch Complicated 4 East (SLC-4E) is about for no sooner than 12:10 a.m. PST (3:10 a.m. EST, 0810 UTC).
Just a little greater than eight minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9 first stage booster will land on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Of Course I Nonetheless Love You,’ positioned within the Pacific Ocean.
If profitable, this may mark the 111th booster touchdown on OCISLY and the 377th booster touchdown thus far.
When first saying the company’s proliferated structure, the NRO stated there could be six launches for the undertaking in 2024. Since then, they’ve added two further missions, NROL-153 and NROL-192, that are scheduled to launch earlier than the top of the 12 months.
“To remain forward of the competitors and guarantee it will possibly proceed to function in a heightened menace surroundings, the NRO is modernizing its structure in house and on the bottom – delivering extra functionality quicker with elevated resilience,” the NRO wrote in a prelaunch press package. “A larger variety of satellites – massive and small, authorities and business, in a number of orbits – will ship an order of magnitude extra indicators and pictures than is obtainable right now.
“The NRO continues to construct and fortify the biggest authorities constellation in historical past – enabled by an particularly dynamic 18-month interval, ending late this 12 months, by which roughly 12 missions can have launched, placing greater than 100 payloads on orbit.”
These missions are listed beneath, together with the launch dates for these which have already flown:
- June 22, 2023 – NROL-68 (ULA – Delta 4 Heavy)
- Sept. 10, 2023 – NROL-107/Silentbarker (ULA – Atlas 5 551)
- March 21, 2024 – NROL-123 (Rocket Lab – Electron)
- April 9, 2024 – NROL-70 (ULA – Delta 4 Heavy)
- Could 22, 2024 – NROL-146 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)
- June 28, 2024 – NROL-186 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)
- Sept. 5, 2024 – NROL-113 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)
- Oct. 24, 2024 – NROL-167 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)
- NET Nov. 30, 2024 – NROL-126 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)
- NET Dec. 2024 – NROL-149 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)
- NET Dec. 2024 – NROL-153 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)
- NET Dec. 2024 – NROL-192 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)
The variety of satellites onboard the NROL-126 mission has not been disclosed publicly.
