Launch Vehicle
Falcon 9
Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit.
Fairing
Made of a carbon composite material, the fairing protects satellites on their way to orbit. The fairing is jettisoned approximately three minutes into flight, and SpaceX continues to recover fairings for reuse on future missions.
First Stage
Falcon 9’s first stage incorporates nine Merlin engines and aluminum-lithium alloy tanks containing liquid oxygen and rocketgrade kerosene (RP-1) propellant, generating more than 1.7 million pounds of thrust at sea level. After separation, the fist stage will return to Landing Zone 4.
Interstage
The interstage is a composite structure that connects the first and second stages, and houses the pneumatic pushers that allow the first and second stage to separate during flight.
Grid fins: Falcon 9 is equipped with four hypersonic grid fins positioned at the base of the interstage. They orient the rocket during reentry by moving the center of pressure.
Second Stage
Powered by a single Merlin Vacuum Engine, the second stage delivers Falcon 9’s payload to the desired orbit. The engine ignites a few seconds after stage separation, and can be restarted several times to place multiple payloads into different orbits.
Site Info
Launch Complex 39A
NROL-108 will launch from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida. Originally constructed in the 1960s, LC-39A was the launch site for 11 Saturn V Apollo missions, including Apollo 11, the first Moon landing. The pad was also the launch site for 82 space shuttle missions, including the first shuttle launch, the final servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope, and the final shuttle mission. After the space shuttle was retired in 2011, NASA began the process of transforming KSC from a historically government-only launch facility into a multi-user spaceport for both government and commercial use. In 2014, SpaceX signed a property agreement with NASA for use and operation of the launch complex for 20 years. SpaceX has since modified the facility to meet its needs, including building a horizontal processing hangar at the base of the pad to perform final vehicle integration. The first SpaceX launch from the pad was the CRS-10 mission for NASA launched on a Falcon 9 on Feb. 19, 2017.