Space News & Blog Articles

Join us for a roundup of the week’s space news with reporters covering the big stories. Spaceflight Now’s Will Robinson-Smith is joined by Irene Klotz, Senior Space Editor for Aviation Week, and Richard Tribou, Space Reporter and Senior Content Editor for The Orlando Sentinel.

Among the topics of discussion, the panel will talk about the recent testing of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, the preparations for the third test flight of Starship and the status of the Commercial Crew Program with the SpaceX Crew-8 mission in progress and Boeing’s Crewed Flight Test of its Starliner spacecraft coming soon.

Irene Klotz, Aviation Week:

• Blue Origin New Glenn Tanking Test Sets Stage For Launch This Year

• Blue Origin’s New CEO On Honing The Company’s Business Practices

• SpaceX Eyes March 14 For Possible Starship Flight Test 3

SpaceX performs a tanking test, called a wet dress rehearsal, on its fully integrated Starship rocket on March 4, 2024. At the same time, it was preparing to launch the Crew-8 mission for NASA from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX may be on the cusp of launching its massive Starship rocket for a third time, potentially as early as next Thursday. In an online update, the company said it is targeting Thursday, March 14 for the third flight test of Starship “pending regulatory approval.”

While SpaceX didn’t publish a launch time on its website, a livestream post on X (formerly Twitter) showed a start time of 7:30 am EST (6:30 a.m. CST, 1230 UTC). Coupled with SpaceX stating that its broadcast would begin about 30 minutes prior to liftoff, that suggests a target launch time of 8:00 a.m. EST (7:00: a.m. CST, 1300 UTC).

The mission continues SpaceX’s iterative approach to developing its Starship rocket, which involves flying as much as possible and getting through as much of its mission profile as it can. SpaceX is hoping to push a number of boundaries for the vehicle with this flight.

On the Ship 28 upper stage for instance, SpaceX aims to test the payload door, conduct a re-ignition of one or more Raptor engines while in space and conduct a propellant transfer demonstration during the coast phase.

Being able to demonstrate propellant transfer in space is key not only to SpaceX’s future ambitions, but also to NASA’s Artemis program. While this flight will perform the transfer within Ship 28, the next big leap will be a ship-to-ship transfer.

Crew Dragon Endeavour approaches the International Space Station carrying three NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut. Image: NASA TV.

A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft caught up with the International Space Station early Tuesday after a 28-hour orbital chase, bringing three NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut to the outpost for a six-month tour of duty.

The docking capped an exceptionally busy “day” for SpaceX that included the Crew Dragon’s launch Sunday at 10:53 p.m. EST, followed by two back-to-back Falcon 9 flights Monday, one from Florida and the other from California, that put a total of 76 satellites into orbit.

All the while, the Crew Dragon, launched three days late because of high winds, continued its automated approach to the space station, catching up from behind and below and then moving in for docking at the Harmony module’s forward port at 2:28 a.m. EST Tuesday, about a half hour earlier than expected.

After hooks drove home to firmly lock the spacecraft in place, a SpaceX flight controller called to confirm “docking sequence is complete. So with that, Crew Dragon Endeavour, welcome to the International Space Station. We would also like to note that you can’t be ‘Crew L8’ (late) when you arrive 30 minutes early.”

“SpaceX Dragon … copies all,” Crew 8 commander Matthew Dominick replied. “So excited to be here, and thank you, all the teams that got us here, so much.”

SpaceX’s new Starlink V2 Mini satellites inside a payload processing facility at Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX

Coming on the heels of the successful launch of the four-person Crew-8 mission heading up to the International Space Station, SpaceX is preparing for another Falcon 9 launch from the Cape. The Starlink 6-41 mission will see another batch of 23 internet satellites head up to join the growing constellation in low Earth orbit.

Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is set for 6:56 p.m. EST (2356 UTC). Weather for the mission is 80 percent favorable at liftoff, according to a forecast from the 45th Weather Squadron.

Spaceflight Now will have live coverage starting about one hour before liftoff.

SpaceX has not provided information regarding which first stage booster is supporting this mission. However, its droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’ and fairing recovery vessel, ‘Doug,’ departed Port Canaveral last week in support of this mission.

A collection of 53 payloads are encapsulated inside a pair of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 payload fairings ahead of the launch of the Transporter-10 rideshare mission set for March 4, 2024. Image: SpaceX

For a tenth time in a little more than three years, SpaceX will conduct a rideshare mission, carrying dozens of small payloads, called CubeSats and MicroSats, to low Earth orbit. The mission, dubbed Transporter-10, is set to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Monday afternoon.

Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) is set for 2:05 p.m. PST (5:05 p.m. EST, 2205 UTC). If necessary, there is a backup launch opportunity 24 hours after that.

Spaceflight Now will have live coverage of the mission beginning about 30 minutes prior to liftoff.

SpaceX advertises these missions as a continuous opportunity for those wanting to launch smaller payloads to have a way of getting to a variety of orbital inclinations. On its website, the company advertises getting a 50kg payload to sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) for $300,000 “with additional mass at $6,000 per kilogram.”

Transporter missions can also be launched to mid-inclination low Earth orbit, geostationary transfer orbit and trans-lunar injection. SpaceX states that its Transporter mission are scheduled to launch roughly every four months to mid-inclination orbit.

A remotely triggered camera captures the liftoff of a SpaceX Dragon atop a Falcon 9 rocket on the Crew 8 mission. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now.

Three NASA astronauts and a cosmonaut blasted off on a flight to the International Space Station Sunday, the first of two launches by NASA and the Russian space agency to replace five of the lab’s seven crew members and to deliver a fresh Soyuz ferry ship for two cosmonauts midway through a yearlong flight.

After launch scrubs Friday and Saturday, Crew 8 commander Matthew Dominick, co-pilot Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin thundered away from the Kennedy Space Center atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 10:53 p.m. EST.

The Falcon 9’s reusable first stage, making its maiden flight, flew itself back to a pinpoint landing at the nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station after boosting the upper stage and Crew Dragon out of the lower atmosphere. It was the 48th booster landing in Florida and SpaceX’s 279th successful recovery overall.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft was released to fly on its own 12 minutes after liftoff, on course for rendezvous and docking with the space station early Tuesday.

“Oh my goodness, what an incredible ride to orbit,” Dominick exclaimed after reaching space. “I’m both glad, and not glad, that you don’t have a copy of our (cabin intercom), the cheers all the way up were incredible. A big thank you to SpaceX for incredible instructors … engineers and operators. They’re the reason we are now safely in orbit.”

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavour sits atop a Falcon 9 rocket ahead of the launch of the Crew-8 mission from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now

For the second time this year, SpaceX is preparing to send a quartet of people up to the International Space Station. Its Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft are standing by at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, hoping weather permits a launch late Saturday night.

Liftoff of the Crew-8 mission from historic Launch Complex 39A is set for Saturday, March 2 at 11:16 p.m. EST (0416 UTC Sunday). The launch was delayed from March 1 due to poor weather in the downrange area off shore where crew would be rescued in the unlikely event of a mid-ascent mission abort. NASA and SpaceX are continuing to keep a close watch on the abort zone weather conditions which is listed as moderate to high risk and the local weather at the launch site which currently is considered only 40-percent favorable.

Spaceflight Now will have live coverage from the Kennedy Space Center Press Site beginning about four hours prior to liftoff.

The mission will be a first for three out of the four members of Crew-8. Michael Barratt, the pilot, previously flew a Soyuz and Space Shuttle Discovery to the ISS in 2009 and 2011 respectively.

“The idea of multiple vehicles is just such a positive sign of human spaceflight to begin with,” Barratt said. “Different entities: government agency, private agency, different government agency. Human spaceflight is flourishing and that’s a really good thing.”

In just the fourth Leap Day launch in history, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now

SpaceX made the most of a weather delay to an astronaut launch from Florida’s Space Coast. The company launched a batch of Starlink satellites from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday morning.

The Leap Day launch of the Starlink 6-40 mission added another 23 Starlink Version 2 Mini satellites to the growing low Earth orbit constellation. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 occurred at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 UTC).

This was just the fourth time in history that an orbital launch took place on Feb. 29. Japan, Russia and China can also lay claim to launching on a day that only exists every four years.

About 8.5 minutes after liftoff, the first stage booster, tail number B1076, landed on the droneship ‘Just Read the Instructions,’ which was positioned in the Atlantic Ocean. This was the 11th flight of this booster and the 73rd landing for this droneship.

The launch on Thursday was only possible because of poor weather out in the Atlantic Ocean much farther north. Launch weather forecasters predicted that if a mid-flight abort were necessary during the ascent of the Crew-8 mission to the International Space Station, conditions would be unsafe for the recovery crew and the astronauts within the Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Firefly’s new MLV manufacturing and integration building in Bertram, Texas. Image: Firefly Aerospace

In the months following its fourth flight of it Alpha rocket, Firefly Aerospace continues to push forward with work on two new rockets in partnership with Northrop Grumman. On Wednesday, Firefly is set to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony marking a manufacturing expansion to support the work flows on the Antares 330 rocket and its sequel, the Medium Launch Vehicle (MLV).

The expansion, which boosted its manufacturing space from 92,000 to 207,000 square feet, also includes a new engine test stand, with can withstand up to 230,000 pounds of thrust. This addition supports the test campaign for Firefly’s Miranda and Vira engines.

“After Firefly signed the MLV agreement with Northrop Grumman, we went immediately to work on our Briggs expansion, which has been completed in less than a year’s time,” said Bill Weber, CEO of Firefly Aerospace in a statement. “Along with the expansion, we’re taking advantage of automated machinery to further advance our rapid production schedule while improving efficiencies and lowering costs.”

Firefly and Northrop Grumman are aiming to launch the first flight of the Antares 330 rocket in 2025. Seven Miranda engines will power the first stage of this rocket, while Northrop Grumman’s Castor 30XL solid rocket motor will power the second stage, as it did for the Antares 230. Northrop Grumman is also providing both vehicle integration and launch pad operations up at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

Later that year, the companies are expected to debut the MLV. It will use the first stage developed for the Antares 330, but will feature a liquid-fueled upper stage and a single Vira engine. The Vira engine was previously referred to as a Miranda vacuum engine as recently as Nov. 2023.

SpaceX performed a deployment test of its new emergency egress system from the crew access tower at Space Launch Complex 40 on Monday, Feb. 26, 2024. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now

SpaceX is closing in on certifying its launch pad at Space Launch Complex 40 to support astronaut and cargo missions with its second-generation Dragon spacecraft. On Monday, the company performed a test of its new emergency egress system featuring a type of deployable slide.

The red slide flew out of a storage container positioned on the crew access tower and deployed along pre-stationed cables that extend to the ground, safely away from where a Falcon 9 rocket would stand. It differs notably from the slide-wire style baskets featured at Launch Complex 39A.

Bill Gerstenmaier, SpaceX’s vice president of Build and Flight Reliability, alluded to Monday’s test during a teleconference about the forthcoming Crew-8 mission to the International Space Station. He said before they use the new tower to support an astronaut mission, they would like to test it out on one of their Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) flights.

“We would like to do a cargo flight first, if we can, and we think CRS-30 is probably the right time to do that,” Gerstenmaier said. “And the work’s pretty much completed at the pad. Got some stuff to do next week, but we’ll be in good shape for CRS-30.”

That mission is set for sometime in mid-March, though the date is still being shored up. Joel Montalbano, NASA’s ISS Program Manager, said it comes during an incredibly busy year for the Space Station.

The four members of the SpaceX Crew-8 mission pose in front of the NASA Gulfstream plane at Space Florida’s Launch and Landing Facility. (Left to right) Roscosmos Cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin and NASA Astronauts Jeanette Epps, Matthew Dominick and Michael Barratt. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now

Set against a bright, blue Florida skyline, the three astronauts and one cosmonaut who make up the SpaceX Crew-8 mission touched down at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Sunday afternoon.

The crew’s Gulfstream cruised in for a landing at the Space Florida Launch and Landing Facility at about 1:45 p.m. (1845 UTC). They were greeted on the tarmac by, Jennifer Kunz, a KSC Associate Director, and Dana Hutcherson, Deputy Director Commercial Crew.

“Coming out here to the Cape, every time, I’m a kid in a candy store,” said Matthew Dominick, a NASA astronaut and the commander of the Crew-8 mission.

While the upcoming mission will be the first spaceflight for Dominick, he worked for NASA for seven years leading up this launch.

“It’s an incredible time to be involved in spaceflight. Who would’ve though five or six years ago that this would be the fifth flight of Endeavour that we get to go on? Who would’ve though five or six years ago that the competition for launch or the constraint to launch would be a launch pad?” Dominick said, referring to the recent launch of the IM-1 robotic mission to the Moon. “We delayed our launch a few days because there’s stiff competition to get out there to 39A. It’s not a rocket constraint, it’s a pad constraint.”

File photo of Starlink V2 Mini satellites being prepared for launch in a payload processing facility at Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX is preparing to launch its biggest batch of second generation Starlink satellites to date on Saturday. The company loaded 24 Starlink V2 Minis onto its Falcon 9 rocket, which is preparing for flight at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Liftoff of the Starlink 6-39 mission is set for 6:41 p.m. EST (2341 UTC). This will be the 11th dedicated Starlink launch so far in 2024 and includes one more second-generations Starlink satellite than Falcon 9 has carried on recent flights. It’s not clear if SpaceX has achieved this extra capacity by squeezing more performance out of the Falcon 9 vehicle, modifying the flight profile or reducing the mass of each satellite. The first V2 mini delivery mission on Feb. 27, 2023 carried 21 satellites. SpaceX increased the capacity for each Cape Canaveral launch to 22 satellites in May, before raising that number again to 23 in October 2023.

Spaceflight Now will have live coverage starting about one hour prior to liftoff.

About eight and a half minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail number 1069, will land on the SpaceX droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas.’ This will be the 59th landing on this droneship and the 215th droneship landing to date.

The Starlink satellites are set to deploy from the Falcon 9 upper stage a little more than an hour after liftoff and will bring the total number of Starlink satellites launched to 5,896, according to statistics tracked by astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell.

An onboard camera captures the plume from the nine Merlin 1D engines on the first stage of the Falcon 9 as it climbed away from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Feb, 22, 2024. Image: SpaceX.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the West Coast with another batch of 22 Starlink satellites at 8:11 p.m. PST Thursday (11:11 p.m. EST / 0411 UTC).

The Starlink 7-15 mission roared away from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on the first launch opportunity of the day, heading on a south-easterly trajectory, targeting a 184×178 mile (296×287 km) orbit, inclined at 53 degrees to the equator.

The first stage booster, tail number 1061 was making its 19th flight, which ties the record previously set by booster 1058 before it was lost during recovery operations following a successful launch and landing.

Booster 1061 joined the fleet on the East Coast launching the Crew 1 and 2 missions to the International Space Station. It went on to fly the SXM-8, Cargo Dragon CRS-23, IXPE, Transporter-4 and Transporter-5 missions before transferring to the West Coast where it launched the Globalstar FM15, ISI EROS C-3 and Korea 425 missions. It also flew on eight previous Starlink delivery missions.

After completing its burn, the first stage touched down on the drone ship ‘Of Course I still Love You’ stationed about 400 miles downrange (644km) in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California.

Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander named Odysseus cruises over the near side of the Moon on Feb. 21, 2024, a day ahead of its scheduled landing attempt. Image: Intuitive Machines

Update 2:34 p.m. EST: Intuitive Machines said it “chose to exercise an additional orbit before starting the IM-1 mission landing sequence” and therefore, adjusted the anticipated landing time.

In a day not seen since the Dec. 11, 1972, a lander built in the United States could safely reach the surface of the Moon. Houston-based Intuitive Machines is hoping to snap a more than 50-year absence from the U.S. on the lunar surface, but also a streak of commercial failures to make it safely to the Moon.

Intuitive Machines said they are targeting landing no earlier than 6:24 p.m. EST (2324 UTC) Thursday evening at Malapert A, a crater about 10 degrees from Moon’s south pole. It takes place a week after launching onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Feb. 15 at 1:05 a.m. EST (0605 UTC).

Watch live coverage of the landing starting at 5 p.m. EST (2200 UTC).

The final steps towards the landing attempt will take place over a matter of about an hour and 15 minutes Thursday evening. While subject to change, here’s the landing timeline as it stands currently in EST:

A image of Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander named ‘Odysseus’ captured by one of the spacecraft’s onboard cameras. Image: Intuitive Machines

Achieving a successful lunar landing becomes increasingly more tangible for the team at Intuitive Machines with each passing day since launch. On Wednesday, the Houston-based company announced that it was able to place its robotic lunar lander, named Odysseus, into a 92 km circular orbit around the Moon, clearing the way for a landing attempt on Thursday.

In a social media post, Intuitive Machines said the lander’s main engine burned for 408 seconds to complete the maneuver to enter orbit.

“Initial data indicates the 800 [meters per second] burn was completed within 2 m/s accuracy,” the company stated. “Over the next day, while the lander remains in lunar orbit, flight controllers will analyze the complete flight data and transmit imagery of the Moon.”

The mission thus far is helping to prove out the viability of a propulsion system powered by a combination of liquid oxygen and liquid methane. Trent Martin, the vice president of Space Systems for Intuitive Machines, said IM chose this propellant mixture for its main engine because the company believes it’s “the future of this technology.”

“The second reason we chose it is because we can test it so easily. We test it in our flame range in Houston regularly. We’ve done over 150 rocket fires on multiple iterations of this engine,” Martin said in the run-up to the Feb. 15 launch. “We’ve taken the engine that’s sitting on that spacecraft, with that spacecraft, and fired it as a test fire to prove that that engine will light on the vehicle.”

Indonesia’s Merah Putih 2 awaits launch inside the payload fairing of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now.

Indonesia aims to increase broadband internet access across its country through the launch of its latest communications satellite aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The Telkomsat HTS 113BT satellite, also referred to as Merah Putih 2, is set to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 3:11 p.m. EST (2011 UTC).

There is a two-hour window during which the launch can take place on Tuesday. If needed, there is also a four-hour backup window on Wednesday that opens at 12:53 p.m. EST (1753 UTC).

Spaceflight Now will have live coverage starting about one hour prior to liftoff.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster being used on this mission, tail number B1067, will be making its 17th flight. Its previous launches included Crew-3, Crew-4 and a pair of Cargo Dragon spacecraft missions to the International Space Station. It also launched PSN Satria, another Indonesian communications satellite, in June 2023.

About 8.5 minutes following liftoff, B1067 will land on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Just Read the Instructions.’ This will be the first outing for JRTI since B1058 toppled over while returning to Port Canaveral in Florida in December.

An Electron rocket lifts off from Rocket Lab’s launch site on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula carrying the ADRAS-J satellite for Astroscale. Image: Rocket Lab.

A small satellite that will inspect a discarded rocket body in orbit lifted off Sunday/Monday on a mission to develop techniques for removing space debris. The satellite built by Japan-based Astroscale launched atop a Rocket Lab Electron from the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand at 3:52 a.m. NZDT (9:52 a.m. EST / 1452 UTC).

The Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan satellite or ADRAS-J will approach and monitor the spent upper-stage rocket of an H-2A rocket that launched in January 2009. It is part of the Japanese space agency’s (JAXA) Commercial Removal of Debris Demonstration program and is designed to lay the ground work for a future mission to deobit the rocket stage, tentatively scheduled for 2026. A contract has yet to be awarded for this second phase of the program.

ADRAS-J was deployed 64 minutes into flight after two firings of the Electron’s Curie kick stage to precisely place the spacecraft on course for its rendezvous in space.

“100% mission success,” Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck wrote in a social media post. “Big day for the GNC [Guidance Navigation and Control] team with perfect argument of perigee targeting.”

The mission, nick named “On Closer Inspection”, was the 44th Electron launch to date and Rocket Lab’s second mission of 2024.

Join us for a roundup of the week’s space news with reporters covering the big stories. Spaceflight Now’s Will Robinson-Smith is joined by Chris Davenport of The Washington Post and Gina Sunseri of ABC News. The show goes live at 4 p.m. EST (2100 UTC).

The discussion will include stories like the launch and process of Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander, which is making its way towards the Moon; the warnings on Capitol Hill about Russia’s potential development of an anti-satellite weapon and SpaceX achieving the 300th launch of its Falcon 9 rocket with its latest Starlink mission.

Chris Davenport, The Washington Post:
• Possible Russian aggression in space
• Launch of commercial lunar lander

Gina Sunseri
• Intuitive Machines Moon-bound lander launches
• Warning of ‘national security threat’ from Russian space activity

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch the Starlink 7-14 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Image: SpaceX

Update: 8:15 p.m. EST: SpaceX scrubbed the launch Wednesday evening.

SpaceX wasn’t able to keep the love of Falcon 9 flights going this Valentine’s Day with a launch launching from California. The company scrubbed the launch attempt of the Starlink 7-14 mission.

The next available opportunity for the Falcon 9 rocket supporting this mission to launch begins at 1:34 p.m. PST (4:34 p.m. EST, 2134 UTC). A reason for the scrub has not been provided by SpaceX.

Spaceflight Now will have live coverage on Launchpad Live starting about 30 minutes before liftoff.

This latest Starlink mission comes sandwiched between two marquee missions for SpaceX: the USSF-124 mission, arranged by the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command, and the IM-1 mission, a robotic lunar lander from Houston-based Intuitive Machines.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the U.S. Space Force (USSF)-124 payload of missile warning satellites for the Missile Defense Agency and Space Development Agency, completes being raised into its vertical launch position at Space Launch Complex (SLC)-40 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida ahead of today’s scheduled 5:30 p.m. EST liftoff. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX is aiming to launch its eighth Falcon 9 rocket on a National Security Space Launch (NSSL) mission on Wednesday evening. The launch, named United States Space Force 124 (USSF-124) is targeting liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at the start of a four-hour launch window that opens at 5:30 p.m. EST (2230 UTC).

If the rest of the schedule holds, this will be the first of up to three launches for SpaceX planned within a nine-hour period of time. It’s also hoping to launch another batch of Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base and Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander overnight.

Live coverage of the USSF-124 mission begins about one hour prior to liftoff.

Onboard the Falcon 9 rocket are a batch of six satellites: two for the U.S. Department of Defense’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and four for the U.S. Space Forces’ Space Development Agency (SDA). The MDA’s satellites are part of its Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) program.

“This launch represents a pivotal time for MDA as we enter a new phase of missile warning, tracking and defense,” said Lt. Gen. Heath Collins, director of MDA, in a statement. “These HBTSS satellites are an essential step forward in our efforts to stay ahead of our adversaries.”