On April 11, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the U.S. Space Force’s weather monitoring satellite. The vehicle took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 7:25 a.m. Pacific Time. The USSF-62 mission launched the first American Weather System Tracking Microwave (WSF-M) satellite into orbit.

Manufactured by Ball Aerospace and recently acquired by BAE Systems, WSF-M features a microwave instrument to collect weather data, including ocean surface wind speed and direction, ice thickness, snow depth, soil moisture, and local space weather measurements. .

The spacecraft will operate in low polar orbit. The space force has ordered a second WSF-M satellite, scheduled for delivery by 2028. These satellites are part of a broader effort to modernize the military’s space-based environmental monitoring capabilities.

Data used for military planning

“Data collected by WSF-M will be provided to meteorologists to support the creation of a broad range of meteorological products needed to plan missions and operations every day around the world,” the U.S. Space Force said.

Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth just eight minutes after liftoff and payload separation and landed at Vandenberg Landing Site 4.

USSF-62 is SpaceX’s 37th launch of 2024 and the second national security space launch of the year. In February, SpaceX launched the USSF-124 mission from the Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, deploying six US missile defense satellites for the Space Agency and the Missile Defense Agency.