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NROL-76 (NROL = National Reconnaissance Office Launch)
Launch Date: NET April 16
Launch Time: TBA
Destination Orbit: classified (see below)
Stage Recovery: LZ-1
NROL-76 is a US spy satellite, and therefore its purpose is unknown. Given the stage landing is at LZ-1 we are able to exclude a heavy geostationary launch, but a lightweight bird could end up there. More likely destinations would be low Earth orbit (LEO), medium Earth orbit (MEO) or a highly elliptical Molniya orbit, the latter having a long loiter time over a selected region at apogee. Could be a Quasar (data relay), Nemesis (SIGINT), NOSS-3 (Naval Ocean Surveillance System) or something else.
Coverage wise, this means SpaceX is not going to webcast the full S2 burn to SECO and payload separation for security reasons. Instead, the webcast will likely cut away after stage separation and ignition, then cover the first stage landing and that'll be it. They also may not supply the usual tracking indicators.
Launch Date: NET April 16
Launch Time: TBA
Destination Orbit: classified (see below)
Stage Recovery: LZ-1
NROL-76 is a US spy satellite, and therefore its purpose is unknown. Given the stage landing is at LZ-1 we are able to exclude a heavy geostationary launch, but a lightweight bird could end up there. More likely destinations would be low Earth orbit (LEO), medium Earth orbit (MEO) or a highly elliptical Molniya orbit, the latter having a long loiter time over a selected region at apogee. Could be a Quasar (data relay), Nemesis (SIGINT), NOSS-3 (Naval Ocean Surveillance System) or something else.
Coverage wise, this means SpaceX is not going to webcast the full S2 burn to SECO and payload separation for security reasons. Instead, the webcast will likely cut away after stage separation and ignition, then cover the first stage landing and that'll be it. They also may not supply the usual tracking indicators.