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

[zubenelgenubi]

Any SLC-40 activity sightings while on-site for the launches at SLC-41 and LC-39A?

EDIT: At some point, the satellite within its payload fairing will be delivered from wherever on-site that the satellite was processed.  I doubt that will be advertised.

[Jansen]

Any SLC-40 activity sightings while on-site for the launches at SLC-41 and LC-39A?

I believe it’s inside the HIF, so someone will have to peek in the garage door.

[Jansen]

NextSpaceflight and SpaceflightNow have changed NROL-108 from its Nov 18 launch date.

Now indefinite.

[zubenelgenubi]

NextSpaceflight and SpaceflightNow have changed NROL-108 from its Nov 18 launch date.

SFN Launch Schedule, dated November 13:
Delayed to Decmeber 2020.

[Jansen]

NextSpaceflight says NET November.
https://nextspaceflight.com/launches/details/5112

[Jansen]

Any SLC-40 activity sightings while on-site for the launches at SLC-41 and LC-39A?

EDIT: At some point, the satellite within its payload fairing will be delivered from wherever on-site that the satellite was processed.  I doubt that will be advertised.

The NRO conducts its own operations at the Eastern Processing Facility down the road. It’s about 10 miles away from SLC-40.

It was supposed to already be at the HIF, but a last minute issue meant it was moved back to the EPF.

[soltasto]

SpaceX Opens Accreditation for NROL-108 Mission

HAWTHORNE, Calif. – November 18, 2020. SpaceX is now opening accreditation for the NROL-108 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office, which is targeted for no earlier than December. Falcon 9 will launch the mission from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

[Jansen]

I hope that is a good sign the issues are near resolution.

With Starlink v1.0 L15 launching Nov 22 and the US Thanksgiving holiday, an early December launch seems the best we can hope for.

[jpo234]

Someone on Reddit posted the following mission patch:

[zubenelgenubi]

Interesting, a second Tolkien-themed patch.

[jpo234]

What does the "Black Speech" say? I make it

One satellite to rule them all, One satellite to find them, one satellite to ???? them all and ...

[Skyrocket]

What does the "Black Speech" say? I make it

One satellite to rule them all, One satellite to find them, one satellite to ? them all and ...

My best take is:

ONE SATELLITE TO RULE THEM ALL, ONE SATELLITE TO FIND THEM, ONE SATELLITE TO BRING THEM ALL, AND IN S?A E BIND THEM

For the red part:
The first letter is a "S",
the second is illegible for me, it does not appear anywhere else in the text, so it might be one of the unused letters (CJKPQVWXYZ)
the third is an "A",
then there is a space (may be intentional or not)
and then there is an "E".

Perhaps the illegible letter is intended to be "P" and where the space is, the artist perhaps forgot to add the letter "C"? Then it would be:

ONE SATELLITE TO RULE THEM ALL, ONE SATELLITE TO FIND THEM, ONE SATELLITE TO BRING THEM ALL, AND IN SPACE BIND THEM

Which would make sense as a modified LOTR quote.

[scdavis]

Definitely SPACE. The P is not an error, it's a stylized Greek letter Pi. C does seem to be missing or else rolled in the A somehow.

[Yellowstone10]

NRO now reporting an NET date of December 17 for NROL-108.

https://twitter.com/NatReconOfc/status/1334931367235383297

[Jansen]

Dec 17 is a 12 day turnaround from CRS-21 and would match the current LC-39A record. B1059 is probably already in the HIV at this point.

This is only the second launch from LC-39A for a NRO mission, underscoring the urgency of flying the payload ASAP. The payload issues must have been very recently resolved.

LV integration at SLC-40 should be underway for B1051 for launch on Dec 10. That would make the earliest launch available from that pad Dec 18/19.

The first mission was NROL-76, which only launched from LC-39A because SLC-40 was undergoing repairs and unavailable.

[gongora]

This is only the second launch from LC-39A for a NRO mission, underscoring the urgency of flying the payload ASAP.

It's also only the second launch by SpaceX that is acknowledged to be an NRO mission.  National Security launches can go from either pad.

[Jansen]

National Security launches can go from either pad.

Of course, that has been demonstrated and is a strong selling point for SpaceX. But there is a strong preference for NS launches to be conducted on the CCAFS side, dating to before the Space Shuttle launches.

[kdhilliard]

... This is only the second launch from LC-39A for a NRO mission, ...

Ken Mattingly (CDR of 51-C) might choose to disagree with you, but then, of course, he'd have to kill you.

The Space Shuttles flew 10 DoD missions, four of which are now believed to have deployed reconnaissance satellites operated by the NRO, two of those launching from LC-39A:

1985: STS-51-C Discovery from LC-39A with a Magnum ELINT satellite
1988: STS-27 Atlantis from LC-39B with a Lacrosse radar imaging reconnaissance satellite
1989: STS-33 Discovery from LC-39B with a Magnum ELINT satellite
1990: STS-36 Atlantis from LC-39A with a Misty photo reconnaissance satellite.

While they were described at the time simply as "Classified DoD missions", they were what would today be described as NRO missions.  (The very existence of the NRO wasn't declassified until 1992 -- over thirty years after it was formed.)

... But there is a strong preference for NS launches to be conducted on the CCAFS side, dating to before the Space Shuttle launches.

Perhaps, but is there any evidence of that preference?

Has there been any other launcher which carried NS payloads out of the Cape while having operational pads on both KSC & CCAFS?  (If the F9 is the first, then you could now (with NRO-108) say that 100% of the time that NRO had a choice, they chose KSC.  Of course that isn't fair given n=1, but perhaps they have little to no preference between sites.)

Edit to say: Shout-out to Ares67 for the excellent threads on those pre-NSF missions.  I'm off to send Oliver a PM of thanks right now.

[nuukee]

Anybody else find it interesting that this mission was delayed for unknown reasons while the Delta NRO44 mission was on hold?
Now, within days, both missions have a date again.
Wild conspiracy theory: Can both payloads be related?

[klod]

Delta launch planned for August, while NROL-108 suddenly appeared in October. So ULA faked launch and then they found an issue?