01
Mission
Tranche 1 Transport Layer A is one of six missions by the United States Space Force Space Development Agency (SDA) for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer constellation, which will provide assured, resilient, low-latency military data and connectivity worldwide to the full range of warfighter platforms from Low Earth Orbit satellites.
The constellation will be interconnected with Optical Inter-Satellite Links (OISLs) which have significantly increased performance over existing radio frequency crosslinks. It is expected to operate over Ka band, have stereo coverage and be dynamically networked for simpler hand-offs, greater bandwidth and fault tolerance.
This launch carries 21 satellites manufactured by Northrop Grumman.
Falcon 9 will launch SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer A from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Following stage separation, the first stage will return to Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4).
- Liftoff
- 01:06 PDT at the pad
- Window
- – 1 h 5 min
- Rocket
- Falcon 9 Block 5 · SpaceX
- Destination
- Polar Orbit
- Launch site
- Space Launch Complex 4E, Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA
- Latest update
- NET October 5 per marine navigation warnings, TBC.
65min
Launch window
117th
SpaceX launch of 2026
02
Falcon 9 Block 5
SpaceX · Reusable
Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit. The Block 5 variant is the fifth major interval aimed at improving upon the ability for rapid reusability.
634 flights, 633 successful, first flown May 2018
- BoosterLanding Zone 4 (LZ-4)
70m
Height
3.7m
Diameter
549t
Mass at liftoff
23t
Payload to low Earth orbit
7,607kN
Thrust at liftoff
03
Launch site
Vandenberg, California
Space Launch Complex 4E
- Coordinates
- 34.632° N · 120.611° W
- Local time
- 06:25:54 PDT
- This year
- 63rd launch from this pad in 2026
- Pad turnaround
- 4 days since the previous launch
