Falcon 9 Block 5 | WSF-M2 & BLAZE-2 (USSF-178)
SpaceX is targeting Q1 2027 for Falcon 9 Block 5 carrying WSF-M2 & BLAZE-2 (USSF-178) from Space Launch Complex 4E, Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA, United States of America. Launch Library files only the first quarter, so the date is a placeholder. The date is still provisional and can move.
COUNTDOWN
FLIGHT PLAN
There's no launch window filed yet. Current date is a placeholder or rough estimation based on unreliable or interpreted sources.
FIELD KIT / OPTICS
Where to start if you want a telescope for the back garden.
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Celestron Travel Scope 70 mm Refractor
A 70 mm scope on a light tripod that packs into its own backpack, so it's easy to take out. It shows craters on the Moon, Jupiter's four bright moons and the shape of Saturn's rings. The tripod is the weak part, so expect to steady it.
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Beginner Dobsonians
A big mirror on a simple rocker mount, with no motors to go wrong. This is a search, not one pick. Compare 130 mm and 150 mm models before you buy.
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Beginner refractors
Lighter and quicker to set up than a Dobsonian, but weaker on faint galaxies and nebulae. Worth a look if the scope has to live in a cupboard.
BROWSE opens an Amazon search. It isn't a pick of one product.
LINKS AMAZON.COM
MISSION BRIEF
Second Weather System Follow-on (WSF) satellite. WSF-M (Weather System Follow-on - Microwave) is the next-generation operational environmental satellite system for the Department of Defense (DoD), to replace the microwave wavelength weather forecasting capabilities of the DMSP satellites. Ball Aerospace has been selected in late November 2017 to be the prime contractor for 2 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) weather satellites with a passive microwave imaging radiometer instrument and hosted Government furnished energetic charged particle (ECP) sensor space weather payload developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory. The radiometer leverages the Ball-built Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Microwave Imager (GMI) instrument. This mission will improve weather forecasting over maritime regions by taking global measurements of the atmosphere and ocean surface. The launch will also include BLAZE-2, a launch opportunity for operational, research, development, and prototype small satellites from across the DoD.
SOURCE: LAUNCH LIBRARY 2 // THE SPACE DEVS
LAUNCH CORRIDOR
- Due east
- The lowest inclination a direct launch from here can reach is 34.6°. That’s this pad’s own latitude. Flying east also gets the most free speed from Earth’s rotation.
- Due south
- The polar corridor, at 90° inclination, passes over both poles. It gets no help from Earth’s spin, so the same rocket can carry less.
Drag the globe to turn it. The shading is the real terminator, and it moves.
A globe of the Earth centred on Space Launch Complex 4E at latitude 34.63 degrees north, longitude 120.61 degrees west. Two curved lines leave the pad. The solid gold line runs due east and marks the lowest orbital inclination a direct launch from this site can reach, 34.6 degrees, equal to the pad’s latitude of 34.6 degrees. The dashed cyan line runs due south and marks the polar corridor at 90 degrees inclination. The darkened part of the globe is the night side. The surface wind is from 124° at 14 km/h. That's the cyan arrow at the pad.
LAUNCH SITE
Space Launch Complex 4E
Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA, United States of America
OBSERVED 2026-11-11 12:00:00Z // OPEN-METEO (CC BY 4.0) // GENERAL CONDITIONS, NOT LAUNCH CRITERIA
Minimum direct inclination 35°. This pad is 35° north of the equator, so a direct launch can't reach an orbit inclined less than 35°. An orbit of inclination i never passes over latitudes beyond ±i. Getting to an equatorial orbit, which geostationary satellites need, takes a 35° plane change at some point in the flight. Inclinations of 35° and up are reachable straight off the pad. The ground here moves east at about 383 m/s with Earth's spin. That's 465 m/s at the equator, falling with the cosine of latitude. A launch due east keeps that head start.
DATUM WGS-84 // EQUIRECTANGULAR PROJECTION // ORBIT FIGURES DERIVED FROM THE PUBLISHED LATITUDE
Open this pad in a mapPAD CONDITIONS
SURFACE WIND @ 10 M
14km/h
Blowing from the south-east, bearing 124 degrees
GUSTING
13km/h
Clear sky
SOURCE: OPEN-METEO CC BY 4.0
The observed figures are general weather at the coordinates of Space Launch Complex 4E. They aren’t the launch rules. The operator and the range write those for each mission, and they cover things this forecast doesn’t carry, like electric fields, cloud layers higher up and winds along the rocket’s path. Only the operator publishes them. Wind often stops a countdown, but no number here is a limit for this flight. Nothing here is a go or no-go call. No operator figure was published for this attempt.