CLASSIFIED
CHECKMATE 7
US Military Mesh Communications (SDA Tranche 0 Transport Layer) · York Space Systems / US Space Development Agency
Right now
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Checkmate 7, one of ten satellites launched together April 2, 2023 as the US Space Development Agency's first real test of a genuinely new idea for military space: instead of a handful of billion-dollar satellites, build dozens of cheap, disposable, mesh-networked ones that talk directly to each other via laser. This satellite is part of a demonstration mesh the Pentagon explicitly built to be numerous and cheap enough that losing any single satellite barely matters — the opposite design philosophy from the small number of exquisite, expensive satellites the US has traditionally relied on.
Its orbit
- Orbit
- Low Earth Orbitcan appear as a fast-moving star at dawn or dusk
- Altitude
- 571–591 mi (919–951 km)
- Inclination
- 81.0°
- One orbit
- 103.6 minutes13.9 orbits a day
- NORAD ID
- 56166
- Int’l designator
- 2023-050E
- Launched
- 2023
Orbital elements from CelesTrak, as of 22 Sep 2026.
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