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Space Force Sets New Speed Record: 27 Hours from Orders to Launch
The Space Force set a scorching new record Sept. 14 when it launched a satellite into orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., just 27 hours after receiving launch orders.
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lamplighter
Joined 2013/04/13Visited 2023/09/20
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... The 27-hour launch record is just the latest in a series of rapid-fire preparations that began less than a year ago, when SSC, the field command responsible for acquiring and launching space systems, awarded contracts to Millennium Space Systems and Firefly Aerospace. Millennium built the satellite, which will help the service's Space Domain Awareness mission, the manufacturer wrote in a press release, while Firefly built the launch vehicle. In August, the two companies entered a hot standby phase' where they awaited an alert notification from Space Force that would give them 60 hours to transport the payload from the Millennium facility in El Segundo to Vandenberg 165 miles away, then test, fuel, and mate it to Firefly's Alpha launch vehicle. That series of tasks usually takes weeks or months to complete, but the Victus Nox team completed it in just 58 hours before standing on alert as they awaited the call to launch. The previous record of 21 days was set in June 2021, when SSC launched a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket carried by a modified airliner. That mission was called Tactically Responsive Launch-2 (TacRL-2)"the general ability to rapidly launch satellites to respond to urgent operational needs is called Tactically Responsive Space (TacRS). Now that it is deployed in low Earth orbit, the Victus Nox satellite has a deadline to begin operations within 48 hours. The mission is a major accomplishment for SSC's Space Safari Program Office, which is charged with responding to urgent on-orbit needs, a capability space experts say needs to move faster. ...
In August, the two companies entered a hot standby phase' where they awaited an alert notification from Space Force that would give them 60 hours to transport the payload from the Millennium facility in El Segundo to Vandenberg 165 miles away, then test, fuel, and mate it to Firefly's Alpha launch vehicle.
That series of tasks usually takes weeks or months to complete, but the Victus Nox team completed it in just 58 hours before standing on alert as they awaited the call to launch. The previous record of 21 days was set in June 2021, when SSC launched a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket carried by a modified airliner. That mission was called Tactically Responsive Launch-2 (TacRL-2)"the general ability to rapidly launch satellites to respond to urgent operational needs is called Tactically Responsive Space (TacRS).
Now that it is deployed in low Earth orbit, the Victus Nox satellite has a deadline to begin operations within 48 hours.
The mission is a major accomplishment for SSC's Space Safari Program Office, which is charged with responding to urgent on-orbit needs, a capability space experts say needs to move faster. ...
#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2023-09-18 04:21 PM | Reply
"Conquer the Night"
Somebody pinching mission names from Games Workshop Warhammer 40k.
#2 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2023-09-18 04:53 PM | Reply
Came here to find out what launch rocket they used. Congrats to those involved and spot awards to all involved lol.
#3 | Posted by GOnoles92 at 2023-09-18 07:22 PM | Reply
Came here to find out what launch rocket they used.
Firefly Alpha.
en.wikipedia.org
#4 | Posted by REDIAL at 2023-09-18 07:30 PM | Reply
We can get a sat in orbit in 27 hours?
That's impressive.
#5 | Posted by Tor at 2023-09-18 07:38 PM | Reply
We can't afford a decent education system or universal healthcare, but the second Trump farts out the idea of "Space Force" we can find billions to get it going. This country is doomed.
#6 | Posted by TFDNihilist at 2023-09-19 03:39 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 1
farts out the idea of "Space Force"
It's nothing new... it's just a branch of the USAF with their own costumes.
#7 | Posted by REDIAL at 2023-09-19 03:42 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 1
"We can get a sat in orbit in 27 hours?"
As long as it is budgeted designed manufactured and sitting ready on a launch pad long before the orders were issued and the launch crew was pre warned the orders were coming and they were standing back and standing by. Otherwise it takes years.
...
#7 | POSTED BY REDIAL
Yup. I was a part of Space Command for a while when I used to work for the Air Force.
Air Force Space Command, activated Sept. 1, 1982, was an Air Force Major Command headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. On Dec. 20, 2019, Air Force Space Command was redesignated as the U.S. Space Force, the sixth branch of the U.S. military.
#8 | Posted by donnerboy at 2023-09-19 04:39 PM | Reply
It's more than that. They've pulled from every service to create a unified command.
#9 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2023-09-19 04:52 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1
We saw the launch from our house. It was about 30 minutes after sunset and we had just walked out to the front of our house talking to a neighbor when we saw the exhaust plume lit by the Sun that was below the horizon but still able to light-up the smoke trail. It happened so fast that I wasn't able to get inside to grab my camera. For all the years that we've lived here (37 years) that's the first time we've seen an actual launch from Vandenberg AFB. Now I've seen what looked like conn-trails during the day, but only after the fact. This was the first time that we could actually see the rocket and watch as the second stage fired and everything.
I've since found a website which lists the upcoming launches from Vandenberg and will be watching for maybe another early evening launch where the Sun will highlight the exhaust plume.
www.spacelaunchschedule.com
OCU
#10 | Posted by OCUser at 2023-09-19 06:10 PM | Reply
They've pulled from every service to create a unified command.
It's still a branch of the air force.
#11 | Posted by REDIAL at 2023-09-19 06:15 PM | Reply
#9 | POSTED BY SITZKRIEG
In other words Trumpy created a whole new huge government bureaucracy.
After complaining about how government doesn't work Republicans make more of it.
Yay?,
#12 | Posted by donnerboy at 2023-09-19 06:28 PM | Reply
created a whole new huge government bureaucracy.
On a smaller scale than DHS. Maybe.
#13 | Posted by REDIAL at 2023-09-19 06:36 PM | Reply
#12 | POSTED BY DONNERBOY AT 2023-09-19 06:28 PM | FLAG:
No. They are consolidating overlapping bureaucracy because every service has space units.
It's not Trump's idea, people have been pursuing this concept since the 50s.
#14 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2023-09-19 06:39 PM | Reply
They are consolidating overlapping bureaucracy because every service has space units.
With nary a budget adjustment to any of them, I'd imagine?
#15 | Posted by REDIAL at 2023-09-19 06:55 PM | Reply
@#7
Was not sure whether NW or Funny.
Time will tell...
(and the hamster wheel goes 'round 'n' 'round....)
:)
#16 | Posted by LampLighter at 2023-09-19 06:57 PM | Reply
#15 | POSTED BY REDIAL AT 2023-09-19 06:55 PM | FLAG:
Theory vs Application lol. The theory is Congress is fiscally responsible.
#17 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2023-09-19 07:17 PM | Reply
The theory is Congress is fiscally responsible.
#17 | POSTED BY SITZKRIEG
But the defense department is definitely not. They have never EVER passed an audit by the GAO.
#18 | Posted by donnerboy at 2023-09-19 07:44 PM | Reply
Congress is definitely not. They're a John Mulaney cocaine addict with credit cards.
#19 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2023-09-20 10:36 AM | Reply
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