SpaceX launch :- Six satellites total, two for the Missile Defense Agency and four for the Space Development Agency, will be launched into orbit by USSF-124.
Today, February 14, SpaceX successfully launched a covert national security mission in the late afternoon. Today, at precisely 5:30 p.m. EST (2230 GMT), a Falcon 9 rocket carried out the classified USSF-124 mission for the United States Space Force from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
About eight minutes after liftoff, the first stage of the Falcon 9 returned to Earth for a vertical touchdown at sunny Cape Canaveral. Soon after, Space Force requested that SpaceX broadcast its launch. This was SpaceX’s 272nd rocket of the orbital class to land. A SpaceX mission description states that today’s operation was the booster’s seventh launch and landing.
Not much is known about USSF-124. Up until this morning, when it sent out an email announcing that the mission is prepared to take off, the Space Force kept quiet about it. The spacecraft and their anticipated orbital missions were not specified in the statement, which only disclosed that USSF-124 will launch six satellites into orbit: two for the Missile Defense Agency and four for the Space Development Agency.
According to Col. Jim Horne, senior materiel leader for Space System Command’s Launch Execution Delta, “with each national security launch, we continue to strengthen America’s capabilities and its deterrence in the face of growing threats while adding stability to a very dynamic world.” The statement was sent online.
“It’s what we do in the Space Force, and we take that charge seriously.” USSF-124 may be a part of a very active phase of spaceflight. For instance, SpaceX intends to launch 22 of its Starlink internet satellites into orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 7:30 p.m. EST tonight (00:30 GMT on February 15).
Then, on top of a Soyuz rocket, Russia will launch the robotic Progress 87 freighter toward the International Space Station from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:25 p.m. EST tonight (03:25 GMT on February 15). Additionally, on February 15 at 1:05 a.m. EST (0605 GMT), SpaceX intends to launch IM-1, a private moon landing mission, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, which is located next to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.