SpaceX launched another batch of U.S. spy satellites this morning (Dec. 17) from California’s central coast.
A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base today at 8:19 a.m. EST (1319 GMT; 5:19 a.m. local California time), carrying a set of spacecraft for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).
Today’s flight was the booster’s 22nd mission overall. It came down for a landing on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Pacific Ocean about eight-and-a-half minutes after liftoff to mark the company’s 384th overall recovery of an orbital-class rocket, including both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters. The flight was SpaceX’s 127th mission of 2024.
The mission, called NROL-149, “is the sixth launch of NRO’s proliferated architecture, eighth launch of 2024 and last launch of the year!” the agency said in an X post on Sunday (Dec. 15).
Related: SpaceX launches next-gen US spy satellites on 100th Falcon 9 flight of the year (video, photos)
“Proliferated architecture” refers to a “new paradigm for assets the NRO is putting on orbit,” NRO officials wrote in a description of the previous mission in the series, NROL-126, which launched on Nov. 30.
Those assets, the description added, are “numerous, smaller satellites designed for capability and resilience.” We don’t know much beyond that; the NRO, which operates the United States’ fleet of spy satellites, tends not to provide many details about its spacecraft or their activities.
However, the proliferated architecture payloads are believed to be “Starshield” satellites — spacecraft based on SpaceX’s Starlink broadband satellites, but with some high-tech reconnaissance gear attached.
All five proliferated architecture missions to date have lifted off atop Falcon 9 rockets. And all of them launched this year — NROL-146 in May, NROL-186 in June, NROL-113 in September, NROL-167 in October and NROL-126 in November.
The first stage Falcon 9 booster that launched NROL-149 today also lofted two previous spy satellite missions, NROL-113 and NROL-167, according to a SpaceX mission description, as well as NASA’s DART asteroid impact mission.
It’s unclear when and where the Falcon 9’s upper stage will deploy the NROL-149 payloads; SpaceX’s mission description does not provide that information. As with most national security launches, the company provided no views of stage separation or payload deployment.
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