WASHINGTON — SpaceX launched a U.S. military classified mission Feb. 14, sending to orbit six missile-detection satellites: two for the Missile Defense Agency and four for the Space Development Agency.
The mission, named USSF-124, flew to orbit on a Falcon 9. The rocket lifted off at 5:30 p.m. Eastern from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.
The payload included five satellites made by L3Harris Technologies and one made by Northrop Grumman.
The upper stage separated from the booster just over two minutes after liftoff. The first stage landed back on Landing Zone 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. After the landing, at the request of the government, SpaceX ended the webcast and did not show any images of the payload.
USSF-124 was the 11th mission flown by SpaceX under the National Security Space Launch program, and the second under the NSSL Phase 2 contract.
Two of the satellites — one from L3Harris and the other from Northrop Grumman — are the first prototypes developed under the Missile Defense Agency’s Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) program.
The other four L3Harris satellites are part of the Space Development Agency’s Tracking Layer Tranche 0. These are demonstration satellites that will provide test data as SDA continues to build a large constellation for global indications, warning, tracking, and targeting of missile threats.
MDA is a Defense Department agency. SDA, a U.S. Space Force organization, is building a space network — called the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture — that includes a transport layer and a missile-tracking sensor layer.
Both agencies are collaborating to develop a sensor network for tracking both hypersonic and ballistic missiles.
All six satellites on USSF-124 are headed to a near equatorial low Earth orbit. “They are all in the same plane and will work together to do demonstrations,” SDA said….
Read the full article here