Overview

• A Falcon 9 lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 11:50 p.m. ET on August 21 carrying the Boeing-built Orbital Test Vehicle into low Earth orbit.
• The first stage landed at Cape Canaveral about 8.5 minutes after liftoff as the upper stage delivered the uncrewed spaceplane to its operational orbit.
• At the Space Force’s request, SpaceX ended its public webcast after booster recovery, and officials are withholding the mission’s expected duration.
• Boeing reported the vehicle is healthy on orbit, undergoing standard checkout, and flying with an integrated service module to expand payload capacity.
• The mission will trial laser communications that can leverage proliferated LEO networks and will fly a high-performance quantum inertial sensor for GPS-denied navigation.