SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer D

NET December 2026NET

Mission brief

What is happening

SpaceX is launching SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer D on a Falcon 9 Block 5 from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA. It is a classified government mission heading to Polar Orbit.

Why it matters

Details of classified national security payloads are withheld, so the mission profile is usually only partly published and coverage often ends early.

What stands out

Classified payload

At a glance

Destination: Polar Orbit
Payload: SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer D
Mission type: Government/Top Secret
Rocket: Falcon 9 Block 5
Provider: SpaceX
Launch site: Space Launch Complex 4E

Tranche 1 Transport Layer D is one of six missions by the United States Space Force Space Development Agency (SDA) for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer constellation, which will provide assured, resilient, low-latency military data and connectivity worldwide to the full range of warfighter platforms from Low Earth Orbit satellites. The constellation will be interconnected with Optical Inter-Satellite Links (OISLs) which have significantly increased performance over existing radio frequency crosslinks. It is expected to operate over Ka band, have stereo coverage and be dynamically networked for simpler hand-offs, greater bandwidth and fault tolerance.

What changed

Every change to this schedule, logged as it happened. Most trackers only ever show you today's date.

JUN 9, 2023 · 12:48 PM UTC
Adding launch
Launch Library note·Source

RocketRune has been tracking this launch since it entered the schedule.

Schedule confidence

LOW

Treat this date as provisional.

Why does RocketRune rate it this way?

Only a target quarter has been announced.
The provider has not committed to this date.
No schedule changes recorded since RocketRune began tracking this launch.

This is a RocketRune assessment of how firm the published schedule is, not a prediction of launch success. It is calculated from the date precision and status published by the launch provider, plus the schedule changes RocketRune has recorded for this mission.

Launch site: Space Launch Complex 4E, Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA
Vehicle: Falcon 9 Block 5
Provider: SpaceX
Orbit: PO
Payload: SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer D
Status: To Be Determined
Vehicle height: 70 m
Liftoff thrust: 7,607 kN
Vehicle type flights: 644
Vehicle type success rate: 99.8%

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