It’s been a few weeks since the last non-Starlink launch!
Scheduled for (UTC) | 2024-05-22, 08:00 |
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Scheduled for (local) | 2024-05-22, 01:00 (PDT) |
Launch site | SLC-4E, Vandenberg SFB, California |
Payload | NROL-146 |
Booster | 1071-16 |
Landing site | Of Course I Still Love You |
Customer | United States National Reconnaissance Office |
Mission success criteria | Successful delivery of payload to orbit |
Webcasts
Stream | Link |
---|---|
Space Affairs | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANAimO31tLI |
Spaceflight Now | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vj88sXicsY |
NASASpaceflight | |
The Launch Pad | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9OARqVhoMc |
SpaceX | https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1793187706044080168 |
The Space Devs | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niaovijGKfI |
Stats
Sourced from NextSpaceflight and r/SpaceX:
☑️ 17th launch from SLC-4E this year
☑️ 6 days, 13:21:00 turnaround for this pad
☑️ 91st landing on OCISLY
☑️ 52nd Falcon 9 launch this year, 53rd SpaceX launch this year
☑️ 266th consecutive successful Falcon 9 launch (excluding Amos-6) (if successful)
☑️ 352nd SpaceX mission overall (excluding Starship hops)
☑️ 364th SpaceX launch all time (including Starship hops)
☑️ 310th Falcon Family Booster landing, 321st Falcon recovery attempt
Mission and payload info
First batch of satellites for a reconnaissance satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for the National Reconnaissance Office to provide imaging and other reconnaissance capabilities.
Norminal launch and booster landing. No info on stage 2 or payload, but that’s pretty normal for an NRO launch.