SpaceX photo The West Coast’s first launch of 2025 on Thursday also marked the seventh for the growing constellation of spacecraft to serve the nation’s spy satellite agency. The Falcon 9 rocket, built by SpaceX, blasted off at 7:53 p.m. from Vandenberg Space Force Base as the 22nd flight for the first-stage booster. More than eight minutes later, the first-stage successfully landed on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship. The rocket carried the seventh set of satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office for a mission dubbed NROL-153. While officials remained mum about the number of spacecraft on the rocket, it’s believed to have carried approximately 20 satellites. Late Thursday night, NRO representatives declared the launch successful. “Building on the success of the NROL-149 launch on Dec. 17, today’s mission demonstrates the ongoing launch cadence that is strengthening the NRO’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities,” NRO officials said in a written statement. The launch followed six others for the NRO since May from Vandenberg as the agency continues to expand what’s been called the U.S. government’s largest satellite constellation in history. Approximately six additional launches supporting NRO’s proliferated architecture are planned during 2025 with more launches expected through 2028, according to the nation’s spy satellite agency. Sign Up for the A.M. Report Keep up with Noozhawk's daily news coverage, delivered at 4:15 a.m. right to your inbox. Sign up This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Instead of launching one behemoth satellite every few years, the NRO has adopted a different approach for what it has dubbed a proliferated architecture. “The NRO’s proliferated system will increase timeliness of access, diversify communications pathways and enhance resilience,” the NRO said. “It will provide greater revisit rates and increased coverage, and eliminate single points of failure. With hundreds of small satellites on orbit, data will be delivered in minutes or even seconds. This will ensure the analysts, warfighters, and civil agencies NRO serves receive actionable information faster than ever before.” Overall, the NRO has a dozen launches scheduled for 2025 from various sites, including Vandenberg. Other missions occur from Florida, Virginia and New Zealand. Following 51 launches in 2024 from the base near Lompoc, Vandenberg’s forecast calls for more than 70 missions in 2025, including a number of different launch vehicles and purposes. Thursday’s liftoff was the fourth for SpaceX since Jan. 1 with the other three occurring from Florida as the firm looks to have another record-breaking year of launches. Tagged: