Liftoff ClubLook up together
ProCentennial · MST

SpaceX · Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A Falcon 9 lifts off from Vandenberg with the GRACE Follow-On spacecraft.
Photo by Bill Ingalls, NASA. Public domain. Source
Time still moving

Falcon 9 Block 5 | WSF-M2 & BLAZE-2 (USSF-178)

· window to · the clock can still move

What this is

SpaceX is launching a rocket called Falcon 9 from Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA. It is for United States Space Force. A polar path goes over the top and bottom of Earth, so the satellite can eventually see the whole world.

SpaceX is flying a Falcon 9 from Space Launch Complex 4E, Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA. Mission: WSF-M2 & BLAZE-2 (USSF-178). Second Weather System Follow-on (WSF) satellite. WSF-M (Weather System Follow-on - Microwave) is the next-generation operational environmental satellite system for the Department of Defense (DoD), to replace the microwave wavelength weather forecasting capabilities of the DMSP satellites. Ball Aerospace has been selected in late November 2017 to be the prime contractor for 2 () weather satellites with a passive microwave imaging radiometer instrument and hosted Government furnished energetic charged particle (ECP) sensor space weather payload developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory. The radiometer leverages the Ball-built Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Microwave Imager (GMI) instrument. This mission will improve weather forecasting over maritime regions by taking global measurements of the atmosphere and ocean surface. The launch will also include BLAZE-2, a launch opportunity for operational, research, development, and prototype small satellites from across the DoD. Planned orbit: . Status: To Be Determined. Current date is a placeholder or rough estimation based on unreliable or interpreted sources. The published time can still slip. Rockets wait for weather, boats, and the range.

Story written from the public listing. A model key can be added later; none is required.

From here

Too far to see

You will not see this rocket from Centennial, Colorado. It is about 930 miles west. The broadcast is the view.

That is too far for the flame and, for almost every launch, too far for the high-altitude plume. Dim the lights and watch together anyway. The clock is still loose, so daylight is a guess.

Public places

Viewing spots

Places run by a park or a visitor center near this site. A listing is not a promise you can see the rocket from there.

Space jobs corner

Who is on this flight

Every company we can name, in plain words, plus a careers page when we have a real one.

Careers links are public pages we know. If we do not have one, we do not invent it.

Ask about this launch

Only what the listing says

Questions stay with this launch. If a model key is configured on the server, the answer is cached. Without a key, the reply is taken straight from the record.

Put it on a calendar

So the slip still finds you

A single launch can be saved now. The subscribe feed, on the launches page, is the one that moves when a rocket slips. Calendar alarms do not know about bedtime quiet hours.