Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base scheduled for Tuesday
VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif. – A Falcon 9 launch of OHB Italia's NAOS mission is scheduled for liftoff from Vandenberg SFB on Tuesday, Aug. 26, starting at 11:53 a.m. with a backup launch window designated for the following day, Wednesday, Aug. 27 beginning at the same time.
The 27-minute launch window opens up for the mission that includes Dhruva Space's LEAP-1, Planet's Pelican-3 and Pelican-4, and four Exolaunch payloads: Capella's Acadia-6 and Pixxel's FFLY-1, FFLY-2, and FFLY-3 shared SpaceX.
A live webcast of the launch will begin about 15 minutes before liftoff that you can watch on the SpaceX website or on SpaceX's X/Twitter account.
OHB Italia S.p.A is one of two major satellite system integrators in Italy, boasts more than 3,000 employees worldwide making it one of the largest space companies in Europe, and is a Prime Contractor for the Italian Space Agency and the European Space Agency.
Its headquarters are in Milan, Italy and the company also operates out of Rome and Benevento.
The company is part of the European Space and Technology Group OHB SE, a publicly traded company on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, headquartered in Bremen, Germany.
Following first-stage separation, the booster assigned to this mission will return to Earth to land at Landing Zone 4 at Vandenberg Space Force Base.
A depiction of that launch sequence is shown in the image below.
There is the potential for one or more sonic booms associated with this mission and how far the sound travels will depend on weather and other conditions.
This will be the 27th mission for the Falcon 9 assigned to this mission which previously launched: Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, DART, Transporter-7, Iridium OneWeb, SDA-0B, NROL-113, NROL-167, and 18 Starlink missions.
