Firefly Aerospace and Lockheed Martin set to launch joint mission from Vandenberg SFB
VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif. – Lockheed Martin and Firefly Aerospace announced that a previously postponed launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base now has a five-day launch window beginning on Sunday between 6:37 a.m and 7:29 a.m. and carrying over the same timeframe each day.
According to Vandenberg Space Force Base, the 'Message in a Booster' mission is targeting a launch for Tuesday, April 29, between 6:37 a.m. and 7:29 a.m. the military installation shared via social media Monday.
Residents in the area are advised that they may hear one or more associated sonic booms during the early morning launch, but how far the sound travels will depend on weather and other conditions shared Vandenberg Space Force Base.
The Lockheed Martin-funded LM 400 Satellite Platform is a multi-role space vehicle capable of serving military, civilian, or civil customers through its onboard systems including remote sensing equipment, imaging and radar systems, and communications tools detailed Lockheed Martin.
The LM 400 on this launch will deploy into a low Earth orbit where it will test its capabilities during a 30-day on-orbit mission that will culminate in a controlled end-of-life de-orbit operation detailed Lockheed Martin.
The 'Message in a Booster' mission -not to be confused with NASA's Message in Bottle campaign- will be launched using an Firefly Aerospace-designed Alpha FLTA006 rocket from SLC-2 at Vandenberg Space Force Base shared Firefly Aerospace.
This will be the first LM 400 to be launched under a Multi-Launch Service Agreement between Lockheed Martin and Firefly Aerospace.
According to Lockheed Martin, the platform has the volume of an average home refrigerator and is capable of operating in a low Earth orbit, a medium Earth orbit, as well as a geosynchronous Earth orbit.
"We’ve heard our customers’ demand for greater resiliency and proliferated space architectures to complete their missions. Our investment in this technology demonstration is our way to show the technical and manufacturing readiness of our multi-orbit, multi-mission LM 400 platform," explained Jeff Schrader, Vice President of Strategy & Business Development for Lockheed Martin Space. "We’re excited for this opportunity to prove out the technology behind our LM 400 bus on orbit. Instead of just telling our customers, we’re showing them the ways we can deliver capabilities to our warfighters with greater urgency."
The LM 400 on this mission is considered a demonstration satellite and will be used to test every stage of production and on-orbit operations.
"By taking LM 400 through every stage of production and processing, we could identify potential issues early on and make adjustments as needed," explained Tahllee Baynard, Vice President of Lockheed Martin's Ignite organization. "This reduces the risk for our customers and ensures a smooth and efficient production line, and that our final product meets our customers’ exacting standards."
The image below shows the encapsulation process for the LM 400, courtesy of Firefly Aerospace.
Eventually, the LM 400 platform is designed to join a network of other orbiting satellites and has an on-board processing system developed to reduce the time it takes to process collected data and share it with terrestrial recipients. That interoperability is intended to function with non-Lockheed Martin platforms as well noted Lockheed Martin.
