{"id":46367,"date":"2026-07-16T22:22:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T14:22:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-launches-21-communications-satellites-for-the-space-development-agency\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T22:22:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T14:22:44","slug":"spacex-launches-21-communications-satellites-for-the-space-development-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-launches-21-communications-satellites-for-the-space-development-agency\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX launches 21 communications satellites for the Space Development Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--[CDATA[\n\n<figure id=\"attachment_73924\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-73924\" style=\"width: 678px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"--><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"100%\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/20260716_SDA_T1_TLE.jpg\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-73924\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base to send 21 satellites from York Space Systems to orbit on behalf of the Space Development Agency. Image: SpaceX<\/figcaption><p><em><strong>Update July 16, 8 p.m. EDT (0000 UTC): The Space Development Agency confirms a successful deployment.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Space Development Agency launched its third batch of operational satellites designed to improve secure communications between members of the U.S. military and its allies across the globe aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from California on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The SDA\u2019s constellation, the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), consists of a series of series of interconnected satellites with varying focuses, from missile tracking to navigation. The satellites launching on Thursday afternoon are part of the communications layer, referred to as the Tranche 1 Transport Layer (T1TL).<\/p>\n<p>Liftoff of SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 1:32 p.m. PDT (4:32 p.m. EDT \/ 2032 UTC).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program team successfully executed a launch today for our Space Development Agency partners, helping build out another orbital plane for their data Transport Layer,\u201d said U.S. Space Force Col. Ryan Hiserote, SSC SYD 80 commander, in a statement. \u201cWe look forward to continuing our close partnership to deliver additional Tranche 1 and 2 missions for SDA over the next two years as part of NSSL\u2019s continued delivery of responsive and reliable launch for our nation.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"position:relative;width:100%;padding-top:56.25%;overflow:hidden;\"><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rLAfNp2CtrY?si=sb1SwXrzK7jc-kaQ\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" webkitallowfullscreen=\"\" mozallowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>SpaceX launched the T1TL-E mission using the Falcon 9 first stage booster B1103, making its fourth flight after previously launching Starlink 17-35, Starlink 17-42, and NROL-179.<\/p>\n<p>A little more than 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1103 landed on the SpaceX droneship, \u2018Of Course I Still Love You\u2019, positioned in the Pacific Ocean. This was the 211th landing on this vessel and the 639th booster landing to date for SpaceX.<\/p>\n<h4>Building out the Transport Layer<\/h4>\n<p>There will be 154 operational satellites spread across the various layers of the Tranche 1 portion of SDA\u2019s PWSA constellation. That breaks down to the following, according the SDA:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>126 Transport Layer satellites<\/li>\n<li>28 Tracking Layer satellites<\/li>\n<li>4 missile defense demonstration satellites<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These satellites will be managed from Space Operations Centers located at the Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota and Redstone Arsenal in Alabama.<\/p>\n<p>The SDA awarded satellite construction contracts to Lockheed Martin Space, Northrop Grumman Strategic Space Systems and York Space Systems in February 2022 to build the satellites for the T1TL portion of the constellation.<\/p>\n<p>The first 21 T1TL satellites from York Space Systems launched on the T1TL-B mission on Sept. 10, 2025. That was followed by the T1TL-C mission a month later with satellites from Lockheed Martin.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_70850\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-70850\" style=\"width: 876px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"100%\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/20250910_SDA_T1TL_B.jpg\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-70850\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base on Sept. 10, 2025. It carried 21 satellites for the Space Development Agency\u2019s Tranche 1 Transport Layer, part of the larger Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a low Earth orbit satellite constellation. Image: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In a September 2025 statement to Spaceflight Now, Col. Ryan Hiserote, the U.S. Space Force\u2019s Space Systems Command\u2019s (SSC) division chief in System Delta 80 Assured Access to Space, said that the order of the first three missions for the SDA\u2019s T1TL were \u201cinterchangeable\u201d and didn\u2019t need to fly in alphabetical order.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYork was the first of the Tranche 1 performers to ship and launch its satellites. All spacecraft from York\u2019s first production lot were confirmed healthy within hours of launch separation, and the constellation has since passed numerous milestones as it continues through early operations,\u201d the company said in a June 5 press release.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith this second production lot, York is again first among Tranche 1 primes to complete T1 spacecraft production, continuing to demonstrate the high-rate production capabilities required to support proliferated space architectures. Upon full delivery, York\u2019s first and second production lots represent more than 40 spacecraft developed in support of the proliferated mission.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_73891\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-73891\" style=\"width: 678px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"100%\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/20260714_T1TL-E_York_satellites.jpg\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-73891\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Three of the 21 satellites from York Space Systems inside a clean room at Vandenberg Space Force Base prior to the launch of the Space Development Agency\u2019s Trance 1 Transport Layer E mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Image: York Space Systems<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Launch of the T1TL-E mission was awarded to SpaceX as part of fourth order year of missions within the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 contract, which is managed by Space Systems Command. Announced in June 2023, T1TL-E was one of six missions awarded to SpaceX.<\/p>\n<p>When awarded, these missions were scheduled to launch in fiscal year 2025. However, as happens with a number of NSSL missions, the payloads can be years behind schedule.<\/p>\n<p>The February 2022 press release from the SDA announcing the awards for the T1TL missions stated that these satellites should be \u201cready for launch by September 2024.\u201d However, the first batch didn\u2019t fly until a year later.<\/p>\n<p>Spaceflight Now reached out to the SDA to learn more about why none of the satellites manufactured by Northrop Grumman have launched to date, but we did not receive a response before publishing this article.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_73904\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-73904\" style=\"width: 632px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"100%\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/20260715-T1T1LE-Payload-1-632x1024.jpg\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-73904\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A batch of 21 satellites manufactured by York Space Systems are prepared for encapsulation in a SpaceX Falcon 9 payload fairing ahead of launching the Space Development Agency\u2019s Tranche 1 Transport Layer E (T1TL-E) mission. Image: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base to send 21 satellites from York Space Systems to orbit on behalf of the Space Development Agency. Image: SpaceXUpdate July 16, 8 p.m. EDT (0000 UTC): The Space Development Agency confirms a successful deployment. The Space Development [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46367"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}