Update 8:43 p.m. EST (0143 UTC): SpaceX landed the first stage booster on the droneship following liftoff.
Against a cloudy Florida sky, SpaceX launched its latest Falcon 9 rocket with a payload that has not been officially identified.
The mission, according to SpaceX and the FAA was referred to as “RRT-1.” Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened Monday, Dec. 16, at 7:52 p.m. EST (0052 UTC).
Weather conditions were a watch item for SpaceX with this mission. The company cited high winds at the pad its reason for standing down from Friday’s launch attempt and Monday may also prove challenging.
On Sunday, the 45th Weather Squadron issued a launch weather forecast suggesting a 75 percent chance of acceptable weather for liftoff on Monday. Meteorologists listed liftoff winds and cumulus clouds as the primary concerns.
“Gusty onshore flow with scattered coastal showers will continue for the next few days due to a very strong high pressure system in the Northeast US and a surface trough in the northwest Caribbean,” launch weather officers wrote in their forecast. “By [Monday] evening, the high will begin to slide eastward into the Atlantic, allowing for a gradual relaxing of the pressure gradient.
“However, a coastal surface trough will develop along the Florida east coast accompanied by increased moisture from the southeast. This will bring scattered onshore moving showers throughout the afternoon and evening hours.”
The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1085 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for a fourth time. It previously supported the launches of Crew-9 as well as Starlink 10-5 and Starlink 6-77.
Roughly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1085 touched down on the SpaceX droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas.’ This marked the 90th booster landing on ASOG and the 383rd booster landing to date.
Mystery payload
Prior to the launch, neither SpaceX nor the mission’s customer made a public statement about what payload was onboard the Friday night Falcon 9 flight.
Some speculated online that it was a third-generation Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite manufactured by Lockheed Martin. A point of rationale is the mission timeline for RRT-1 is strikingly similar to that of the last GPS 3 Space Vehicle to launch, GPS 3 SV06, which launched on Jan. 18, 2023.
Another data point is that the hazard warnings are also reminiscent of the SV06 launch.
And a fresh evidence supporting this idea is the launch timeline – it’s almost exactly the same as well (GPS III SV06 on the left, “RRT-1” on the right). pic.twitter.com/FqPVIdME7V
— Cosmic Penguin (@Cosmic_Penguin) December 13, 2024
However, the Falcon 9 second stage on this mission has a grey band around it, which is used to help regulate the temperature of the propellant on the upper stage. Typically, that’s used for missions with significantly long coast phases, like those launching on a direct to geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) or a highly-elliptical Earth orbit (HEO).
If the payload is a GPS satellite it would be destined for a medium Earth orbit (MEO) about 12,500 miles in altitude.
According to the list of National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 contract launches assigned to SpaceX, the only ones named as GPS missions are GPS 3 SV10 and GPS 3 F-1, the latter of which is the next generation of GPS satellite and will launch on a Falcon Heavy.
If this is in fact a mission on behalf of the U.S. Space Force, SpaceX does have a number of other missions listed under this procurement process that haven’t launched. Those include USSF-36, USSF-31 and USSF-70.
The RRT-1 mission wasn’t brought up as a topic of discussion during the three-day Space Force Association’s Spacepower Conference, which wrapped up on Thursday.
GPS powers everything from power grids to emergency services. We’re evolving GPS to stay ahead—fortifying civilian infrastructure and military operations with advanced signals, jam resistance and more. Click to learn how GPS shapes our world: 🔗
— Lockheed Martin (@LockheedMartin) December 10, 2024
