Author Topic: Pegasus XL rocket launches secretive 'space domain awareness' satellite for US Space Force  (Read 246 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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Space.com By Elizabeth Howell 6/13/2021

It was the first rapid response launch for the Space Force.

A Northrop Grumman rocket successfully launched a secretive Space Force satellite for "space domain awareness" — or detecting artificial objects in orbit — on Sunday (June 13) in a rapid response mission for the U.S. military.

A Northrop Grumman L-1011 carrier aircraft took off from the newly renamed Vandenberg Space Force Base and flew out over the Pacific Ocean, where it launched the a solid fuel Pegasus XL rocket carrying the new satellite at 4:11 a.m. EDT (1:11 a.m. PDT/0811 GMT). Vandenberg officials confirmed the success of the launch in a Facebook statement.

The mission is called Tactically Responsive Launch-2 (TacRL-2) and is part of a program acknowledged by Air Force from at least 2019. In its biennial report of that year, Air Force stated its rocket systems launch program is "developing a tactically responsive launch capability" through awarding Pegasus XL rocket launches to Northrop Grumman.

More: https://www.space.com/space-force-tacrl-2-satellite-launches-on-northrop-grumman-pegasus-rocket


This still from a Vandenberg Space Force Base video shows a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket carrying the
TacRL-2 satellite being loaded onto a Stargazer carrier plane for a June 13, 2021 launch.