The USSF (United States Space Force) Space Systems Command has formally allocated the eight launches from the previous National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 launch service agreement signed in August 2020 with United Launch Alliance (ULA) and SpaceX.
The launches, under a 60:40 split of missions between the respective companies, are to take place over the next two years. ULA’s five allocated launches will use the Vulcan-Centaur launch vehicle. They are: the GPS III-7 navigation satellite, the USSF-23 and USSF-43 codenamed missions, the WGS-11+ communications satellite, and finally, the USSF-16 codenamed mission. All will fly from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
SpaceX was awarded three missions to go on its Falcon 9 rocket. These are the codenamed missions USSF-124 and USSF-62. The undisclosed USSF-124 will fly from Cape Canaveral or the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida while USSF-62, actually, the first Weather System Follow-On satellite into a near Polar orbit, will be lofted from Vandenberg, California. In addition, a batch of small satellites for the first of six flights for the Tranche 1 Transport Layer communications satellite constellation will be launched on behalf of the Space Development Agency. This will fly to a near polar orbit from Vandenberg.
