SpaceX F9 : NROL-108 : KSC LC-39A : 19 December 2020 (14:00 UTC)

[FutureSpaceTourist]

Updates and discussion thread for newly announced NRO mission NROL-108.

NSF Threads for NROL-108 : Discussion

Successful launch December 19, 2020 at 9:00am EST/1400 UTC on Falcon 9 (booster 1059.5) from LC-39A at KSC.   Successful RTLS landing.

https://twitter.com/johnkrausphotos/status/1313423281236647936

The National Reconnaissance Office has confirmed it will launch a payload on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral later this month, a mission on SpaceX’s schedule that was not publicly disclosed until recently.

FULL STORY: spaceflightnow.com/2020/10/05/nro…

Other SpaceX resources on NASASpaceflight:
   SpaceX News Articles (Recent)  /   SpaceX News Articles from 2006 (Including numerous exclusive Elon interviews)
   SpaceX Dragon Articles  /  SpaceX Missions Section (with Launch Manifest and info on past and future missions)
   L2 SpaceX Section

[Skyrocket]

Perhaps similar to NROL 76 (USA 276), which also only became known only shortly before launch?

[Ben the Space Brit]

Whatever it is, it must be relatively light payload as I understand that it will be a RTLS for the booster.

[Norm38]

Looking at the Manifest, it seems they may have to canibalize either Starlink L13 or L14.  Unless they have a brand new booster ready to go.

[Orbiter]

Looking at the Manifest, it seems they may have to canibalize either Starlink L13 or L14.  Unless they have a brand new booster ready to go.

SpaceX has probably been prepping for this mission for a while now, so I'm betting there's a used booster that's in processing for this mission.

[gongora]

The fleet of boosters is not large.  Core assignments for the next couple months will be very interesting.

[kessdawg]

The fleet of boosters is not large.  Core assignments for the next couple months will be very interesting.

Hopefully set a core turn around record!

[wannamoonbase]

Whoa, love the suddenly added mission.

It makes sense to shuffle boosters from a Starlink launch, they have a pretty full October with NRO and Crew.

[Orbiter]

The fleet of boosters is not large.  Core assignments for the next couple months will be very interesting.

B1059.5 looks the likely candidate to me.

[quagmire]

The fleet of boosters is not large.  Core assignments for the next couple months will be very interesting.

B1059.5 looks the likely candidate to me.

NROL may not be comfortable with a 5th flight booster given SpaceX doesn't have much data gathered on boosters with 5 or more flights. I don't think there has been a commercial launch on any booster with more than 3 launches. I believe any 4th or higher flights have been Starlink.

SpaceX still has 1052 and 1053 in stock if they want to convert them to regular F9's.

[scr00chy]

B1060.3 seems like the more obvious choice.

[wannamoonbase]

The fleet of boosters is not large.  Core assignments for the next couple months will be very interesting.

B1059.5 looks the likely candidate to me.

NROL may not be comfortable with a 5th flight booster given SpaceX doesn't have much data gathered on boosters with 5 ore more flights. I don't think there has been a commercial launch on any booster with more than 3 launches. I believe any 4th or higher flights have been Starlink.

SpaceX still has 1052 and 1053 in stock if they want to convert them to regular F9's.

I was going to suggest those 2, but when I have in the past it set off some 'contention'.  I think it's reasonable, not like there is a lot of FH's on the manifest.

[Rekt1971]

The fleet of boosters is not large.  Core assignments for the next couple months will be very interesting.

B1059.5 looks the likely candidate to me.

NROL may not be comfortable with a 5th flight booster given SpaceX doesn't have much data gathered on boosters with 5 or more flights. I don't think there has been a commercial launch on any booster with more than 3 launches. I believe any 4th or higher flights have been Starlink.

SpaceX still has 1052 and 1053 in stock if they want to convert them to regular F9's.

SAOCOM-1B launched on the fourth flight of B1059.

[gongora]

They have NROL-108, SXM-7, and CRS-21 scheduled in the next six weeks or so, none of which would seem to be candidates for setting new boundaries on reuse.  There are three new boosters entering the fleet in the next month, but it's not clear if the GPS III-4 and Crew-1 boosters will be available for anything but the next mission in their respective programs.  At least the Sentinel 6 booster should become available sometime in December.  I wouldn't be surprised if one of the flights waits for a lower mileage booster to get refurbished.  Maybe one of them could go on a .5, we'll see.  (There's also another GTO flight scheduled for 8 weeks from now)

[klod]

I would suggest following manifest:

B1051   6   Starlink 013 v1.0
B1062   1   GPS III-04
B1049   7   Starlink 014 v1.0
B1060   3   NROL-108
B1061   1   Crew-1
B1058   4   SXM 7
B1063   1   Jason-CS (Sentinel-6A)
B1064   1   SpaceX CRS-21
B1059   5   Türksat 5A

I have doubts about Türksat with its 5th launch of the booster.

[gongora]

1064 is part of a Falcon Heavy.  Presumably 1065 and 1066 are too.  Maybe they can pull a Falcon 9 core forward a little before finishing the Heavy but I don't know if that would be in time for a November launch?

[klod]

1064 is part of a Falcon Heavy.  Presumably 1065 and 1066 are too.  Maybe they can pull a Falcon 9 core forward a little before finishing the Heavy but I don't know if that would be in time for a November launch?

Okey, 1067? NASA would agree to launch on reused random booster?

[scr00chy]

1064 is part of a Falcon Heavy.  Presumably 1065 and 1066 are too.  Maybe they can pull a Falcon 9 core forward a little before finishing the Heavy but I don't know if that would be in time for a November launch?

Okey, 1067? NASA would agree to launch on reused random booster?

Why not? CRS missions launched lots of times with reused boosters.

[gongora]

1064 is part of a Falcon Heavy.  Presumably 1065 and 1066 are too.  Maybe they can pull a Falcon 9 core forward a little before finishing the Heavy but I don't know if that would be in time for a November launch?

Okey, 1067? NASA would agree to launch on reused random booster?

Why not? CRS missions launched lots of times with reused boosters.

CRS hasn't used anything past .2 yet.  I don't see them jumping straight to .5

[klod]

1064 is part of a Falcon Heavy.  Presumably 1065 and 1066 are too.  Maybe they can pull a Falcon 9 core forward a little before finishing the Heavy but I don't know if that would be in time for a November launch?

Okey, 1067? NASA would agree to launch on reused random booster?

Why not? CRS missions launched lots of times with reused boosters.

NASA used boosters from their own previous launches, and only 1 reuse, not more.
As exception 4th flight during inflight abort test.