SpaceX launches for NRO
SpaceX early today successfully completed a launch for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California.
The broadcast by SpaceX began after launch, had degraded visuals, and cut off immediately after the first stage, on its very first flight, touched down successfully on a drone ship in the Pacific. Very little confirmed information was released about the payload, though according to this story that payload included 20 Starlink satellites as well as an additional payload for NRO. It is also possible the Starlink satellites were that NRO payload, being the Starshield military version of Starlink.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
124 SpaceX
55 China
15 Russia
13 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise now leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 143 to 83, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 124 to 102.
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SpaceX early today successfully completed a launch for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California.
The broadcast by SpaceX began after launch, had degraded visuals, and cut off immediately after the first stage, on its very first flight, touched down successfully on a drone ship in the Pacific. Very little confirmed information was released about the payload, though according to this story that payload included 20 Starlink satellites as well as an additional payload for NRO. It is also possible the Starlink satellites were that NRO payload, being the Starshield military version of Starlink.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
124 SpaceX
55 China
15 Russia
13 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise now leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 143 to 83, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 124 to 102.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
that was 17 launches in the month of November. a new record after previous of 13.
if they launch 16 times in December they can actually make 140 launches in 2024. wild.
Since video from prior to shortly before MECO was omitted, it is tempting to conclude that it was done to hide external views of the second stage and/or payload fairing.
”…that payload included 20 Starlink satellites as well as an additional payload for NRO. It is also possible the Starlink satellites were that NRO payload, being the Starshield military version of Starlink.”
It appears that this flight launched 20 regular Starlink satellites plus an additional three Starshield satellites for the NRO.
Though it wasn’t announced, the first three Starshield launches for the NRO each contained 21 Starshield satellites. The fourth launch contained only 17 Starshield satellites. To make up for the shortfall, it appears that SpaceX attached three Starshield satellites to a stack of normal Starlink satellites. This is probably not the last time this will happen. The NRO recently listed eight launches this year for its proliferated architecture, contradicting the previous announcement of six.
Reading between the lines, it appears that SpaceX has received permission from the FCC to launch v2 satellites into their v1 shells. They have no v2 shells at 70 deg. inclination, only a v1 shell. If these were leftover v1 Starlinks, there would be a lot more of them on this flight.
One other note:
This was the 209th successful orbital flight of the Falcon 9 since the start of 2023. The most prolific family of Western launch vehicles prior to Falcon 9 was the classic Atlas with 208 successful orbital flights over its 30+ year history. Falcon 9 has now bested that record counting only two calendar years.
Quite an achievement.
PS: Posting two comments 18 minutes apart is not allowed? What the heck?
mkent: Please explain in more detail your last paragraph. Did you get an error message of some kind?
There are no time limits on comments, as you describe. If you got such a message, I need to know to get things fixed.
Robert,
Just a few days ago, I got a message that said I was posting too fast, slow down. The surprise was that I had not posted a comment in a couple of days prior to that. However, I hit the “Post Comment” button again a few minutes later, and the comment was accepted and posted. I thought nothing of it at the time, but perhaps there is some sort of intermittent problem with the software.
Edward: Very puzzling, as I can find nothing in the settings placing such a limit on comments.
”Just a few days ago, I got a message that said I was posting too fast, slow down.”
That’s the message I got. At first I thought I lost the comment (comments take a while to type on an iPad), but that was not the case. It was still there in the text box when I clicked through.
Five years difference at Starbase.
http://x.com/rgvaerialphotos/status/1863326922723238048?s=46
Also, I get the slow down posting note on occasion.
Robert,
You wrote: “Very puzzling, as I can find nothing in the settings placing such a limit on comments.”
This is why I think it may be some intermittent “feature” in the software. I have learned to roll with the light punches when dealing with computers. On rare occasion one of my comments goes to moderation, which I interpret as having misspelled my email address, causing the software to treat me as a new commenter. If I haven’t misspelled it, then that is yet another mysterious “feature” in the software.
As with mkent, after the “too fast” message, I hit the “previous page” button on my browser, got back my comment, and tried again after a few minutes. Second time was the charm.
That has happened with me..some posts disappearing…oh well.
Jeff Wright: Some of your posts disappeared because you continue to ignore my request to limit the number of links to under 3, (2 preferred). When you post a comment with three or more, it goes into moderation, and I delete it, as I promised you I would.
Your choice.
Jan……10
Feb…….9
Mar…..13 (1 was IFT-3 of Starship/Super Heavy)
Apr…..12
May….13
June…12 (1 was IFT-4 of Starship/Super Heavy, 1 was Falcon Heavy)
July……5 (FAA stand down of two weeks)
Aug.…12
Sep…….9
Oct…..12 (Another FAA stand down)(1 was IFT-5 of Starship/Super Heavy, 1 was Falcon Heavy)
Nov….17 (10 flights in second half of Nov)(1 was IFT-6 of Starship/Super Heavy)
135 (11 flights for remaining month)
136 (12 flights for remaining month)
137 (13 flights for remaining month)
138 (14 flights for remaining month)
139 (15 flights for remaining month)
140 (16 flights for remaining month)
141 (17 flights for remaining month)
My projected range is now 135 to 141 flights in 2024, as compared to my last projection in mid-November of 129 to 135 flights.
The SpaceX launch pace reached an unbelievable 17 flights in November as compared to 14 flights from mid-October to mid-November. Who but SpaceX would have the sheer audacity to obliterate their old monthly record of 13 flights by a full four additional flights?
“Even 140 flights is out of reach now as they would need a cadence of 16.5 flights per month. SpaceX’s best month in 2024 is only 13 flights and they have only done that twice.” My observation from only two weeks ago certainly did not age well.
Another reason to have space based telescopes. More freedom to obesrve. This story talks about what a ground based telescope might see but not the interesting thing of what it will not see. Radar stealth military objects can be detected because they will still block known stars as seen from the ground.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2024/12/vera-rubin-telescope-spy-satellite/680814/?utm_source=msn
Of course such an object might have a fake star projector?
All: My webguy Shane has found that the blocking of comments if several are posted immediately after each other is something that WordPress added to prevent spam and denial-of-service attacks. I don’t see it as an issue here, at least at this moment, and have asked Shane to make the code change that takes it out.