Watch SpaceX attempt to launch falcon 9 Mission LIVE onboard will be the spy satellite for the NROL-108 mission.

SpaceX is targeting Thursday, December 19 for launch of the NROL-108 mission, which will launch from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The three-hour launch window opens at 9:00 a.m. EST, or 14:00 UTC, and closes at 12:00 pm EST.

Falcon 9’s first stage booster previously supported launch of SpaceX’s 19th and 20th cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station, a Starlink mission, and the SAOCOM 1B mission. Following stage separation, SpaceX will land Falcon 9’s first stage on Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

SpaceX will launch the NROL-108 classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. The Falcon 9 will lift off from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A), from Kennedy Space Center, in Florida. Due to the classified nature of the payload, very little is known. However, the payload must have a mass of under 7,000 kg as it is a return to launch site (RTLS) mission.

The booster supporting this mission is B1059. This booster has already flown four times. Its maiden flight was on the CRS-19 mission, which launched on December 5, 2019. It’s second flight was on the CRS-20 mission, which launched on March 7, 2020. Its third and fourth flight was on Starlink V1.0 L8 and on the SAOCOM 1B mission, launching on June 13, 2020 and August 30, 2020 respectively. As this is the boosters 5th flight, its designation will change to B1059.5.

Following stage separation, the Falcon 9 will conduct 3 burns. These burns will softly touch down the booster at LZ-1.

SpaceX is the first entity ever that recovers and reflies its fairings. The recovery vessels, Go Ms. Tree and Go Ms. Chief, will most likely attempt to recover the fairing halves. After being jettisoned, the two fairing halves will use cold gas thrusters to orientate themselves as they descend through the atmosphere. Once at a lower altitude, they will deploy parafoils to help them glide down to a soft landing for recovery.

The Falcon 9 Block 5 is SpaceX’s partially reusable two-stage medium-lift launch vehicle. Block 5 is the final iteration of the Falcon 9; the goal is to apply all the lessons learned from 56 previous Falcon 9 pre-Block 5 flights into a human-rated reusable rocket. The Falcon 9 contains 3 main components: a reusable first stage, an expendable second stage, and a reusable fairing.

Falcon 9 is a reusable, two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of people and payloads into Earth orbit and beyond. Falcon 9 is the world’s first orbital class reusable rocket. Reusability allows SpaceX to refly the most expensive parts of the rocket, which in turn drives down the cost of space access.

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