A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched at 5:30 p.m. ET from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida as part of the USSF-124 mission, to deliver six satellites into orbit under the National Security Space Launch Program (NSSL). This was the 11th launch for SpaceX under the NSSL program and the last of the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Tranche 0 satellites scheduled for launch.

As with prior NSSL missions, The Aerospace Corporation ensured mission success by providing independent and objective assessments in support of the USSF, continuing the NSSL program’s two-decade-long legacy of 100 percent mission success. A notable item for this mission was Aerospace’s utilization of a new object-oriented modeling process and a python-based approach to reduce analytical timelines to meet the tight integration schedule for the initial ILC.

“I am extremely proud of the entire team for their ingenuity and unprecedented responsiveness enabling the integration of the SDAs space vehicles within five months of launch,” said Akhil Gujral, General Manager of the Launch Systems Division at Aerospace.

Equally remarkable was the quick turnaround by the Aerospace team at the STARS Telemetry Data Reduction Center to support an increased launch tempo to record and process data from two other launches planned concurrently within a span of less than eight hours from both coasts.