U.S. SpaceX on Saturday dropped secret cargo for the government’s spy satellite agency, the 30th rocket to be launched into space in 2020 from a spacecraft on the Florida space coast. The Falcon 9 flight broke the annual record of reaching orbit from Florida, a spaceport that lasted 54 years.
It was the 31st major rocket launch from the Florida Space Coast this year, including a high-itude display of SpaceX’s crew Dragon Abort system in January.
SpaceX entered 25 launches from Florida this year – with 24 orbital missions – and the United Launch Alliance flew six times with its Atlas 5 and Delta 4-heavy rocket families.
Prior to 2020, the previous record for launching from the Space Coast, which reached orbit, was established in 1966. There were 31 orbital launch attempts from Cape Canaveral that year, in addition to two suborbital test flights of the Apollo-era Saturn 1B launch, for a total of 33 space launches from Florida in 1966, according to astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Tracks global satellite and launch activity.
It will have to wait for another year to run on breaking the record.
SpaceX’s second dedicated mission for National Reconnaissance Office fees – and the company’s 26th and final flight of the year – will depart at 9 a.m. EST (1400 GMT) on Saturday.
The 229-foot-tall or 70-meter-long Flocida 9 rocket took an eight-minute ride from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to the Pad 39 classified payload.
Nine Merlin 1D engines shone to life and operated a 1.2-million-pound launch at the Kennedy Space Center, driven by Falcon 9 from the Florida Space Coast through clouds extending east-east.
The kerosene-powered launcher shut down its first-stage engines in about a minute and a half in flight, allowing the booster to move away and launch a “boostback” maneuver by resigning some of its engines.
The booster’s course was overturned and turned into a supersonic descent at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, where the rocket came in contact with the target at Landing Zone 1, just over eight minutes after takeoff.
The reusable booster, designated B1059, completed its space and the fifth trip back. It was the 70th time that SpaceX had successfully recovered the Falcon Booster since the first intact landing on Monday, December 21, 2015, five years ago.
The exact purpose of the NRO payload on Saturday’s mission, codenamed NROL-109, was kept secret by the government’s spy satellite agency. The live webcast of SpaceX’s launch focused on the return of the first phase of Cape Canaveral, and ended the live video from the upper phase at the request of the NRO.
The NRO declared the launch a success several hours after the liftoff, wrapping up the intelligence-gathering agency’s sixth launch of the year.
This was the 26th Falcon 9 launch by SpaceX alone this year, including 25 from Florida and one flight from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. SpaceX’s previous record for most Falcon launches in a year was 21 in 2018.
An NRO-OL spokesman said in response to questions from Spaceflight Now that NROL-1 carries a national security payload designed, built and operated by National Rick onna office fees. “Additional details about the payload and its mission are safe. The name or surname of the contractor or contractors involved in making this payload is also protected. “
R In early October, the NROL-108 mission did not appear on any public launch schedule, while Spaceflight was now the first to report the mission’s existence. At the time, the mission was scheduled for Oct. 25, but the flight was delayed several times while changing SpaceX’s initial schedule and other NRO launch activities on Cape Canaveral.
SpaceX on Thursday canceled an initial launch attempt for the NRL-108 mission to evaluate slightly higher pressure readings inside the Falcon 9 rocket’s upper-stage liquid oxygen tank. Crew on Pad 39A hovered the rocket for inspection before raising the vert again late Friday night.
The NRO broke with the standard practice for buying a projection commercially, outside of the government’s established contract schemes.
A spokesman for the NRO confirmed that the agency had received self-service services for NROL-108, without having to go through the US Space Force’s National Security Space Program.
An NRO spokesman said the NRO uses a variety of methods to obtain launch services to support the agency’s overhead reconnaissance mission, including a partnership with the U.S. Space Force under the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program.
“In some cases, NRO satellites use alternative methods to obtain launch services after a cumulative assessment of risk tolerance, required launch dates, available launch capabilities and cost – with the aim of ensuring that satellites are delivered safely into orbit. In a timely manner, ”the spokesperson said.
The National Security Space Launch program is used for the government’s most complex military and intelligence-gathering satellites.
The NRO booked SpaceX for the NROL-108 launch on a commercial basis, reserving the flight as a way to purchase a private satellite operator operator ride on SpaceX’s manifesto. The cost is usually lower than the US government’s launch agreement, which comes with additional oversight and other additional costs.
SpaceX’s previously dedicated NRO mission – NROL-76 in 2017 – was also part of a commercial launch service arranged between the spy satellite agency and Ball Aerospace, a Boulder-based satellite manufacturer based in Colorado. Ball Aerospace booked the launch with SpaceX on behalf of the NRO, and handed over the classified payload to the NRO after being safely in orbit.
Due to the commercial nature of the NRO’s launch agreement with SpaceX, the Federal Aviation Administration was given regulatory oversight over the mission, as the Falcon 9 is launching a privately owned payload.
U.S. It was the company’s 38th FAA-licensed commercial space launch of the year, higher than previous figures for 33 such missions in 2018. This number includes space launches from other U.S. spaceports, and flights through U.S. Headquarters Rocket Lab. Privately owned base in New Zealand.
“The future for this industry is no longer predictable, predictable and a blessing in disguise,” said Wayne Monteith, FAA’s associate administrator for space transportation. “It simply came to our notice then. It is an increase in cadence on steroids. “
“We’ve launched more commercial space in the last four years than in the previous 15 years,” Monteith said Tuesday in a virtual presentation at the Space Foundation’s Space Symposium 365 forum. “In 2011, we only had one commercial space launch.”
“Next year, we will easily have 50 commercial launches and soon more than 100,” Monteith said. “We see mega-stars going up, and we see the beginning of an exceptionally strong space tourism sector. We see initiatives for professional off-world efforts. We have seen commercial companies that can return stuff from space. “
SpaceX will launch its 2021 launching mission in early January, while the Falcon 9 rocket Turksat 5A will send the Communications Satellite into orbit on January 4 from the Pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Launching another Falcon 9 from Florida in mid-January will loft dozens of smaller satellites in a commercial rideshare mission for numerous U.S. and international customers.
The purpose of NROL-108 remains a mystery
Marco Langbroick, a Dutch archaeologist and satellite movement expert, said the information obtained from the airspace alerts about the orbit targeted by the NROL-108 mission provided some insight into the possible purpose of the payload.
According to Leastungbrook, the Falcon 9 on the Pacific Ocean indicates the location of re-entry in the upper phase and the mission is likely to place its cargo in orbit around 52 degrees in the equator.
The Falcon 9 reserved enough propellant in its first phase to return to the Cape Canaveral landing rather than targeting the Sh Fasher landing on the SpaceX droneship. Indicating that the mission may be aimed at a low orbit a few hundred miles from Earth, Langbroik wrote on his website, which is similar, but not similar to the orbit of the NROL-76 mission in 2017.
The expected orbit for the NROL-108 mission does not match the fleet of optical, radar and intelligence satellites known by the NRO, expert analysts said.
A group of hobbyist satellite trackers will try to find the NROL-108 payload after the launch. The military does not publish orbital data on U.S. national security satellites.
“It will be interesting to see what NROL-108’s orbit will look like,” Langbroick wrote. “As I commented with some launches earlier this year, the latest NROs seem to be all ‘new’ type payloads that are potential experimental / mission demonstrators and that go into ‘new’ type orbits.”
He wrote, “The character of the mission is a mystery: this seems like something new again.
New blogpost:
“NROL-1 ::: Probably another mystery launch similar to NROL-76 (USA 276)?”SSC_NL pic.twitter.com/EQHZM26ykQ– Dr. Marco Langbrock (@Marco_Langbrock) December 15, 2020
Canadian Satellite Observer Ted Molkenz said that according to Langbrock’s orbital estimate, the NROL-108 payload would repeat the land cover every three or more days.
“Ground tracks that repeat at intervals of two to four days are a common feature of NRO satellites,” Molkaz told Spaceflight Now. “They enable rapid reconstruction of targets, which is useful for espionage.
Molls warned that observers and analysts could obtain information about NRO satellites through orbital information, optical characteristics and radio transmission, however, the exact mission could remain secret.
Molkaz said much can be thought of through the analysis of orbit, optical characteristics and radio transmission, but a specific mission can remain secret until someone with insider knowledge leaks it to the news media.
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