18.03.2022

The US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has confirmed that its next spy satellite is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the same day the company is planning to launch four NASA and ESA astronauts.

Following SpaceX’s flawless NROL-87 spy satellite launch last month, the NRO has announced that the company is on track to launch NROL-85 – another one or several unknown but potentially related spy satellites – as early as April 15th. Less than two hours prior, NASA simultaneously confirmed that SpaceX is on track to launch Crew-4 – the agency’s fourth operational astronaut transport mission – on April 15th.

Technically, SpaceX has already successfully conducted multiple pairs of launches less than 24 hours apart. The company’s all-time record is 15 hours between a Starlink mission and a Turkish communications satellite launch. More recently, SpaceX launched NROL-87 and a different Starlink mission just 22 hours apart. Lacking a specific launch time for NROL-85, Crew-4 could launch as many as 15 hours later and still occur on the same day. As such, there is plenty of precedent for same-day launches.

However, according to one Twitter user, also a fairly reliable source for SpaceX’s launch scheduling and activities, NROL-85 is actually scheduled to launch as early as ~7am PST (10 am EST) on Friday, April 15th – perhaps as few as two hours after Crew-4’s ~8am EST launch.

Launching an NRO spy satellite or commercial communications satellites shortly before or after an internal Starlink mission is one thing. Launching an NRO spy satellite and a crew of NASA and ESA astronauts hours apart for two of SpaceX’s most risk-averse customers – both of which had to sign off on the concurrence – is, however, an entirely different story. Obviously, still a month away from either launch, the odds are good that one or both missions will run into minor delays, spreading them more than two hours apart. Already, in 2022, SpaceX briefly had NROL-87 and Starlink 4-7 scheduled to launch just two hours apart before the Starlink mission was delayed for unknown reasons, resulting in a 22-hour gap instead.

Nonetheless, NASA, the NRO, and SpaceX have still intentionally scheduled Crew-4 and NROL-85 mere hours apart, which means that they have accepted the possibility that both launches might happen exactly as planned. In other words, two of SpaceX’s most exacting, cautious launch customers have full confidence in the company’s ability to launch two high-value Falcon 9 missions a few hours apart – high praise for a launch capability only a few national space agencies have been able to demonstrate.

Beyond Crew-4 and NROL-85, SpaceX is scheduled to launch Starlink 4-12 NET March 18th, Axiom-1 – the first fully private crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS) – NET March 30thApril 3rd, and Transporter-4 – SpaceX’s fourth dedicated rideshare mission – NET “early April”. Next Spaceflight also reports that SpaceX is scheduled to launch Egypt’s Nilesat-301 geostationary communication satellite sometime in April.

Quelle: TESLARATI

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Update: 6.04.2022

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SpaceX to launch reconnaissance mission from Vandenberg base next week

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has been scheduled to launch next week from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California for the National Reconnaissance Office, a U.S. intelligence agency that builds and operates spy satellites, Space Force announced Friday.

The rocket is expected to lift off between 5:59 a.m. and 7:25 a.m. on April 15 from Space Launch Complex-4 East.

NROL-85 will be the first NRO mission to reuse a SpaceX rocket booster. The NRO first used a reusable Falcon 9 rocket in its NROL-87 launch from Vandenberg in February.

During next week's launch, the Falcon 9 rocket is expected to return to Landing Zone 4 at Vandenberg.

"Upon re-entry of the vehicle, spectators and local residents from Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties can anticipate hearing multiple sonic booms as the vehicle breaks the sound barrier," a release from the base said.

The NRO says little about its spacecraft, except that it supports the agency's security mission to provide intelligence data to the nation's senior policy makers, the intelligence community and the Department of Defense.

Agencies that compile NRO data include the National Security Agency and National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. Civil agencies, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, also use NRO intelligence for research and development and for emergency and disaster relief efforts in the United States and around the world.

In another first for SpaceX, the aerospace company made history Friday by sending the first private crew of astronauts to the International Space Station to carry out various science experiments. The Axiom-1 mission lifted off at 11:17 a.m. from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Meanwhile, SpaceX's planned Crew-4 launch for NASA has been delayed by at least one day to April 21.

Quelle: UPI

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Update: 15.04.2022

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Next Launch NROL-85 on a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg AFB, CA
scheduled for:
15 Apr 22 at 13:41 GMT
15 Apr 22 at 6:41am Pacific
15 Apr 22 at 9:41am Eastern

Quelle: ULA

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Update: 17.04.2022

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Start von SpaceX Falcon-9 mit NROL-85 spy satellite

Quelle: SpaceX