Photo: Michael Frye
Space Launch Delta 45 continued to “set the pace for space” as the world’s busiest spaceport in 2024. The SLD 45 team, composed of military and civilian Guardians and Airmen at Patrick Space Force Base and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, enabled 93 launches from the Eastern Range in 2024.
(U.S. Space Force photo by Senior Airman Spencer Contreras)
Collectively, the team, comprised of total force personnel, surged to send 93 rockets into space, delivering 1,389 orbital assets into a critical warfighting domain. Their dedicated efforts on the Eastern Range enabled the U.S. to break the world record for annual space launches for the second year in a row, with a total of 93 successful launches. Previously, the U.S. set the world record for space launches in 2023 with 108 successful launches, breaking a record held by the Soviet Union since 1982.
The Space Force’s launch ranges are the Eastern Range at Cape Canaveral SFS and the Western Range at Vandenberg SFB, California. Both ranges work in tandem to provide space-based capabilities to the commercial sector, international partners and the joint warfighter.
“We have an outstanding team of professionals dedicated to meeting our nation’s space access needs,” said Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, Eastern Range director. “The relationships we have built between SLD 45 and the commercial launch service providers is a great example of what it means to partner to win.”
Notably the SLD 45 team supported the Crew-9 mission, which sent the first Guardian into space on Sept. 28, 2024. Col. Nick Hague was selected as the pilot for Crew-9 alongside Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, making Hague the first Guardian to launch into space. Originally set for a normal six-month rotation aboard the International Space Station, his mission evolved to facilitate the return of Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore from the ISS.
“I feel privileged to have the opportunity to cast a broader spotlight on everything that Guardians do to make human space flight possible,” Hague said. “The average person might not understand that human space flight doesn’t exist if Guardians aren’t doing what they do on a day-to-day basis, whether it’s launching us into space or the range support that we get [at SLD 45].”
In addition to a record-breaking launch pace, SLD 45 also ensured the successful launch of four rockets carrying payloads in support of the National Security Space Launch program. These special payloads sharpened the Department of Defense’s global vigilance posture by growing varying missile detection capabilities, to provide intelligence information to national decision makers, warfighters and intelligence analysts.
An example of the critical impact of the NSSL program was demonstrated December 16, 2024, when SLD 45 in partnership with SpaceX executed the Rapid Response Trailblazer launch, which followed an accelerated timeline to meet warfighter requirements. This rocket propelled a GPS III Space Vehicle, named SV-07, into orbit to provide specialized, time-sensitive capability to the joint fight and demonstrates U.S. resiliency in the space domain.
Operations at the Eastern Range are expected to continue pushing boundaries with an even higher volume of launches anticipated to occur in 2025.
“The Eastern Range surged our launch count by over 35% in 2024,” Panzenhagen said. “Our team is ready for an even higher launch cadence in 2025, assuring access to space for our nation and maintaining our position as the world’s premier gateway to space.”
SLD 45 plays a critical role in shaping the future of space operations by assuring access to space for the U.S. and global partners amid an increasingly dynamic geopolitical environment.
