Trailblazer was a technology demonstration satellite, which was to have been operated by the United States Air Force and the Missile Defense Agency.

Two previous Falcon 1 launches also failed to reach orbit, but the fourth succeeded although it only carried a dummy payload.

It was originally built for a canceled MDA project, and was based on a SpaceDev MMB-100 satellite bus.

It was launched from Omelek Island, Kwajalein Atoll at 03:34 UTC.

Several other payloads were to be launched aboard the same launch vehicle, including two CubeSats for NASA (PRESat and NanoSail-D), and a space burial (Celestis-07) payload for Celestis, which would have remained attached to the launch vehicle in low Earth orbit.