The Space Development Agency has set its sights on an ambitious launch schedule for 2024 following two successful launches this year that marked steady progress for the fledgling U.S. Space Force agency.

“Starting next September, it’s an 11-launch campaign over 11 months, one launch a month,” SDA Director Derek Tournear said Dec. 7 at a National Security Space Association online forum.

SDA is developing a network of satellites known as the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture — a large constellation of lower-cost, mass-produced satellites in low Earth orbit. This is different from the traditional DoD approach of using small numbers of expensive, highly-customized satellites.

The constellation is designed to provide capabilities like advanced missile warning, tracking and targeting of hypersonic weapons, space asset defense, and battlefield awareness and targeting.

SDA’s first 23 satellites launched in 2023 on SpaceX rockets are demonstration spacecraft known as Tranche 0. There are still four Tranche 0 missile-tracking satellites that were delayed and have not yet launched.

Tournear said SDA’s immediate priority early next year will be to launch these four L3Harris missile-tracking satellites. They are scheduled to fly to orbit alongside other Missile Defense Agency satellites on the USSF-124 Space Force mission but no launch date has yet been announced.

Later in 2024, SDA expects to initiate launches for the first operational satellites that will comprise Tranche 1 of the proliferated low Earth orbit architecture.