US Space Force Successfully Launches First Tactically Responsive Launch Mission

The U.S. Space Force successfully launched the Tactically Responsive Launch-2 (TacRL-2) mission on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base on 13 June, delivering a technology demonstration satellite to Low Earth Orbit.

Pegasus, the world’s first privately developed commercial space launch vehicle, is an air-launched three staged rocket carried aloft by Northrop Grumman’s specially modified “Stargazer” L-1011 aircraft.

Shortly after its release from Stargazer, at approximately 40,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean, Pegasus ignited its first stage, beginning its successful flight carrying TacRL-2 to its intended orbit.

Tactically responsive launch, as a concept, seeks to introduce speed, agility, and flexibility into the launch enterprise to respond to dynamic changes in the space domain or an operational theatre and insert or replace assets on orbit much faster than standard timelines to meet emerging combatant command requirements.

“Today’s successful launch is a clear signal to our strategic competitors that we will not cede access to space,” said Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. ‘Jay’ Raymond. “When I challenged the Space and Missile Systems Center about a year ago to demonstrate a responsive space capability, they accepted and delivered!

“The team presented an integrated Space Domain Awareness satellite ready for launch in record time; what normally would have required two to five years, took 11 months.”