A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rises away from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Thursday morning en route to delivering a military weather satellite into orbit. This was the 13th launch of 2024 from Vandenberg for SpaceX.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rises away from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Thursday morning en route to delivering a military weather satellite into orbit. This was the 13th launch of 2024 from Vandenberg for SpaceX. Credit: SpaceX photo

The first of a new generation of satellites to collect weather and other environmental data for the U.S. military arrived in orbit Thursday morning after a journey aboard a Falcon 9 rocket that launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base. 

The U.S. Space Force mission launched at 7:25 a.m. from Space Launch Complex-4, and the first-stage booster returned roughly eight minutes later to a site west of where it departed from at Vandenberg.

Unlike recent SpaceX missions delayed by stormy weather on the Central Coast, the Falcon rocket’s liftoff Thursday occurred on its first try into mostly clear skies at Vandenberg.

“Even the Vandenberg fog has stayed away,” said John Insprucker, a SpaceX principal integration engineer and a retired Air Force colonel. 

A Falcon 9 rocket's first-stage booster returns to Vandenberg Space Force Base minutes after blasting off for a mission to deliver a military weather satellite into orbit Thursday morning.
A Falcon 9 rocket’s first-stage booster returns to Vandenberg Space Force Base minutes after blasting off for a mission to deliver a military weather satellite into orbit Thursday morning. Credit: SpaceX photo

This was the third launch of the first-stage booster. The mission also reused the two halves of a rocket’s payload fairing, or nose cone, that have flown before.

The 229-foot-tall rocket, the 13th of 2024 from Vandenberg for SpaceX and 37th of the year from both coasts, carried the Weather System Follow-on – Microwave (WSF-M) satellite to low-Earth orbit. 

Deployment of the satellite from the rocket occurred nearly 55 minutes after the rocket and payload lifted off from Vandenberg. 

The Weather System Follow-on – Microwave (WSF-M) space vehicle was successfully encapsulated April 8, 2024, ahead of its scheduled launch as the U.S. Space Force (USSF)-62 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, marking a major milestone on its upcoming launch into low Earth orbit.
The Weather System Follow-on – Microwave (WSF-M) space vehicle was successfully encapsulated April 8, 2024, ahead of its scheduled launch as the U.S. Space Force (USSF)-62 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, marking a major milestone on its upcoming launch into low Earth orbit. Credit: SpaceX photo

The WSF-M satellite will provide warfighters with essential weather data, including the measurement of ocean surface wind speed and direction, ice thickness, snow depth, soil moisture, and more, military officials said. 

Sporting the U.S. Space Force’s Delta and mission logos, the Weather System Follow-on – Microwave (WSF-M) space vehicle has been successfully encapsulated on April 8, 2024, at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, marking a major milestone for the U.S. Space Force (USSF)-62 mission into low Earth orbit.
Sporting the U.S. Space Force’s Delta and mission logos, the Weather System Follow-on – Microwave (WSF-M) space vehicle has been successfully encapsulated on April 8, 2024, at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, marking a major milestone for the U.S. Space Force (USSF)-62 mission into low Earth orbit. Credit: SpaceX photo

Data collected by WSF-M will be provided to military meteorologists crafting a wide variety of forecasts and other weather products necessary to conduct mission planning and operations around the globe. 

“The launch of the WSF-M satellite represents a significant step forward in our mission to enhance our nation’s space capabilities,” said Col. Mark Shoemaker, Space Launch Delta 30 commander at Vandenberg.

“Our dedicated Guardians and Airmen at Vandenberg ensure assured access to space, standing ready to support critical national security space launches when our nation calls.”

Military officials said the new satellite is the first of two satellites built by the former Ball Aerospace to follow the legacy Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites that also launched from Vandenberg.

BAE Systems recently acquired Ball Aerospace, which now is known as BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems.

Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com.