{"id":7817,"date":"2025-09-10T17:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T17:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/7817\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T17:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T17:53:09","slug":"spacex-launches-1st-21-satellites-for-advanced-new-us-military-constellation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/7817\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX launches 1st 21 satellites for advanced new US military constellation"},"content":{"rendered":"

SpaceX sent 21 satellites to orbit from California today (Sept. 10), beginning the buildout of an advanced new constellation for the U.S. military.<\/p>\n

A Falcon 9<\/a> rocket launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base<\/a> today at 10:12 a.m. EDT (1412 GMT; 7:12 a.m. local California time), kicking off the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) first “Tranche 1 Transport Layer” (T1TL) mission.<\/p>\n

The T1TL network will eventually consist of 126 satellites in low Earth orbit<\/a> (LEO), which “will provide global communications access and deliver persistent regional encrypted connectivity in support of warfighter missions around the globe,” according to an SDA explainer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launches the SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer B mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base, in California, Sept. 10, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)<\/p>\n

The SDA was established in March 2019, tasked with helping the U.S. military field highly capable and cost-effective space assets on rapid timelines.<\/p>\n

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“Recognized as the Department of Defense’s constructive disruptor for space acquisition, the Space Development Agency (SDA) will quickly deliver needed space-based capabilities to the joint warfighter to support terrestrial missions through development, fielding, and operation of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture,” the SDA’s website reads<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) is an envisioned LEO constellation of hundreds of small satellites, which will be linked via optical communications. This constellation will consist of seven “layers”<\/a> \u2014 battle management, custody, deterrence, navigation, (missile) tracking, transport and support.<\/p>\n

If all goes to plan, the PWSA will be refreshed and updated every two years<\/a>, via the launch of a new “tranche” of satellites.<\/p>\n

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!<\/p>\n

With today’s launch, assembly of the transport layer’s first tranche is underway. The 21 satellites that went up today were built by Denver-built York Space Systems. The SDA has contracted York, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin to build 42 spacecraft apiece for this layer’s first tranche.<\/p>\n

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Falcon 9 booster 1093 lands on SpaceX’s droneship “Of Course I Still Love You” following the successful launch of the Tranche 1 Transport Layer B mission on Sept. 10, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)<\/p>\n

The Falcon 9’s first stage came back to Earth as planned today, landing at sea on the SpaceX drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” about 8.5 minutes after liftoff. It was the sixth launch and landing for this particular booster, B1093, according to SpaceX<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The rocket’s upper stage, meanwhile, continued carrying the 21 satellites to LEO. It’s unclear exactly when and where they’re scheduled to be deployed. SpaceX’s mission description<\/a> doesn’t provide that information, and the SDA opted not to permit SpaceX to broadcast views of the payload or the Falcon 9 second stage during flight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SpaceX sent 21 satellites to orbit from California today (Sept. 10), beginning the buildout of an advanced new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":["post-7817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}