Space Development Agency completes successful launch of First Tranche 1 satellite

Published Sept. 11, 2025
Space Development Agency

WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- The Space Development Agency has announced the successful launch of the first Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture Tranche 1 (T1) Transport Layer space vehicles (SV) from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.

Rocket launch imagery — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from Vandenberg Space Base, Calif., Sept. 10, 2025. It carried 21 Tranche 1 Transport Layer space vehicles, which will provide low-latency communication links to support the warfighter with a resilient network of integrated capabilities, including tracking of advanced missile threats, enabled by beyond-line-of-sight tactical data links from low-Earth orbit. (Courtesy Photo)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket delivered, Sept. 10, on orbit 21 T1 data transport SVs built by York Space Systems that will provide low-latency communication links to support the warfighter with a resilient network of integrated capabilities, including tracking of advanced missile threats, enabled by beyond-line-of-sight tactical data links from low-Earth orbit (LEO).

“The start of Tranche 1 delivery, just over six years since SDA stood up as an agency, is a remarkable accomplishment highlighting the speed at which the agency moves. More than that, as the PWSA begins to support military operations, it will enhance our strategic advantage by serving the joint warfighting force with operational capabilities previously thought infeasible from LEO,” said SDA Acting Director GP Sandhoo. “We could not deliver these capabilities to the warfighter without our industry partners who have embraced SDA’s spiral development model, moving quickly to deliver commercial technology through the PWSA every two years. The SDA team is grateful to our many mission partners on this launch including the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program and Space Launch Delta 30.”

Beginning in 2027, T1 will provide initial warfighting capability through the PWSA to deliver regional persistence for tactical military data channels like Link 16, along with advanced missile tracking and missile warning, and beyond-line-of-sight targeting plus demonstration of UHF and S-band tactical satellite communications. This timeline supports warfighter needs communicated to SDA by U.S. combatant commands through the agency’s Warfighter Council.

The T1 constellation will consist of 154 operational SVs, including 126 Transport Layer SVs and 28 Tracking Layer SVs, plus four missile defense demonstration SVs, equipped with optical communications terminals and Ka-band radio frequency receive/transmit capability.

Two state-of-the-art SDA Space Operations Centers will operate the T1 constellation from Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota, and Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, while a global network of ground entry points provide support.

The launch vehicle deployed the satellites into an insertion orbit where SDA will begin test and checkout procedures of the bus and mission payloads, which will eventually include orbit raising to reach the intended orbit at approximately 1,000 km.

“We had a great launch today [Sept. 10] for the Space Development Agency, putting this array of space vehicles into orbit in support of their revolutionary new architecture,” said Col. Ryan Hiserote, senior materiel leader for Space Systems Command Launch Execution Delta. “The NSSL team has been preparing for the start of these higher cadence operations and we are ready and eager for the remainder of SDA’s T1 launches. We’re looking ahead, focused on countering the pacing threats and cementing the launch ops responsiveness needed for the future, right now.”

Tranche 1 launches will continue with an approximate cadence of one launch per month for the next nine months, using the NSSL launch providers, until the full space vehicle constellation is on orbit.

SDA’s mesh network of optically-connected satellites is primarily focused on tactical data delivery to the warfighter at “the edge”, tracking and targeting for advanced missile threats, and beyond-line-of-sight targeting for time sensitive or mobile targets on land, at sea and in the air. The PWSA is part of a multi-orbit strategy being carried out across the U.S. Space Force to deliver the combatant commanders the capabilities they need to deter and defeat threats in, from and to space.