Firefly Alpha Block 2 | TacSat
Firefly Aerospace is targeting 2026 for Firefly Alpha Block 2 carrying TacSat from Space Launch Complex 2W, Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA, United States of America. Launch Library files only the year, 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
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Celestron Travel Scope 70 mm Refractor
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Beginner Dobsonians
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Beginner refractors
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LINKS AMAZON.COM
MISSION BRIEF
TacSat is an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance spacecraft with a mission to prove specialized sensing and communications capabilities on orbit. The satellite will participate in exercises that highlight cross-domain kill-web connectivity, enabling timely execution of tactical space missions. TacSat will host a proven Lockheed Martin infrared sensor on board that brings previously developed technology to space for the first time. This sensor produces high quality imagery and it can interface with federated Battle Management Command & Control (BMC2) combat systems to provide joint forces with a comprehensive view of threats. The satellite will also feature Lockheed Martin’s first 5G.MIL® payload on orbit. This provides cellular-like networking for military space assets, making satellite constellations more resilient. It also helps enable seamless connectivity with tools in the air, at sea and on land. Launch operation will also again demonstrate responsive space pre-launch operation capabilities.
SOURCE: LAUNCH LIBRARY 2 // THE SPACE DEVS
LAUNCH CORRIDOR
- Due east
- The lowest inclination a direct launch from here can reach is 34.8°. 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 2W at latitude 34.76 degrees north, longitude 120.62 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, 34.8 degrees, equal to the pad’s latitude of 34.8 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 96° at 12 km/h. That's the cyan arrow at the pad.
LAUNCH SITE
Space Launch Complex 2W
Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA, United States of America
OBSERVED 2026-11-11 10:45:00Z // 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 382 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
12km/h
Blowing from the east, bearing 96 degrees
GUSTING
16km/h
Clear sky
SOURCE: OPEN-METEO CC BY 4.0
The observed figures are general weather at the coordinates of Space Launch Complex 2W. 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.