This morning (December 17) SpaceX launched another batch of US spy satellites from the central coast of California.
one Falcon 9 The rocket takes off from Vandenberg Space Force Base Today at 8:19 a.m. EDT (1319 GMT; 5:19 a.m. local time in California), a group of spacecraft will be delivered for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).
Today’s flight is the booster’s 22nd mission. About eight and a half minutes after liftoff, it landed on the Of Course I Still Love You drone ship in the Pacific Ocean, marking the company’s 384th full recovery of an orbital-class rocket, including two Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy booster. This flight is SpaceX’s 127th mission in 2024.
The mission, called NROL-149, “is the sixth launch of the NRO dispersion architecture, the eighth launch in 2024, and the last launch of the year!” the agency said in a statement X posts Sunday (December 15).
“Proliferation architecture” refers to “the new paradigm NRO is taking to put assets into orbit,” NRO officials wrote in descriptions of previous missions in the series. NROL-126launching on November 30th.
The description adds that the assets are “numerous small satellites designed to increase capability and resilience.” We don’t know much beyond that; the National Reconnaissance Office, which operates the U.S. fleet of spy satellites, tends not to provide many details about its spacecraft or its activities.
However, the proliferating architectural payload is Believed to be the Star Shield satellite — SpaceX-based spacecraft Starlink Broadband satellites, but with some high-tech reconnaissance equipment attached.
To date, all five surge construction missions have launched aboard Falcon 9 rockets. All of these were launched this year – NROL-146 in May, NROL-186 June, NROL-113 September, NROL-167 October and NROL-126 November.
The first-stage Falcon 9 booster that launched NROL-149 today also flew two previous spy satellite missions: NROL-113 and NROL-167. SpaceX mission statementand NASA’s DART asteroid impact mission.
It’s unclear when and where Falcon 9’s upper stage will deploy the NROL-149 payload; SpaceX’s mission description does not provide that information. As with most national security launches, the company provided no input on stage separation or payload deployment.