SpaceX launches next-gen US spy satellites on 2nd leg of spaceflight doubleheader (video)
- by Space.com
- Sep 06, 2024
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SpaceX continues to keep busy.
One of the company's Falcon 9 rockets lifted off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base tonight (Sept. 5) at 11:20 p.m. EDT (8:20 p.m. local California time; 0320 GMT on Sept. 6 ), sending a batch of next-gen spy satellites aloft for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).
It was SpaceX's second launch of the day; another Falcon 9 delivered 21 of the company's Starlink internet satellites to orbit from Florida's Space Coast this morning.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the NROL-113 mission lifts off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024.
(Image credit: SpaceX via X)
The Falcon 9 aced its landing during tonight's mission, which the NRO called NROL-113. About 8.5 minutes after liftoff, the booster settled down softly on the deck of the SpaceX droneship Of Course I Still Love You, which was stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
It was the 20th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description. Fourteen of those flights have been Starlink missions.
NROL-113 was the third launch servicing the NRO's "proliferated architecture," a new network consisting of "numerous, smaller satellites designed for capability and resilience," the agency wrote in a mission description. SpaceX also launched the first two missions in the series — NROL-146 in May and NROL-186 in June.
We don't know much about the proliferated architecture satellites or what they're doing in orbit; their missions and activities are classified, like those of most NRO craft. (The agency operates the nation's fleet of spy satellites.)
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