SpaceX achieved another milestone by launching a classified mission for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The mission, designated NROL-186, aims to bolster national security by delivering essential intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities from space.
The Falcon 9 rocket, with tail number B1081 in SpaceX’s fleet, lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) precisely at 8:14 p.m. PDT. This launch marked the eighth mission for the reusable Falcon 9 booster, which has previously supported a range of missions including crewed spaceflights, climate monitoring satellites, and deployments for SpaceX’s Starlink constellation.
Following liftoff, approximately eight minutes later, the Falcon 9’s first stage successfully landed on the droneship ‘Of Course I Still Love You.’ This achievement marked the 95th successful booster landing for SpaceX’s droneship and the 326th overall booster landing.
The NRO’s “proliferated architecture,” showcased in this mission, is a significant advancement in satellite technology. These satellites, reportedly based on SpaceX’s Starshield satellite bus in collaboration with Northrop Grumman, aim to enhance the agency’s operational capabilities without disclosing specific details due to national security concerns.
In a statement to Spaceflight Now, the NRO emphasized the confidential nature of their operations, stating, “NRO systems are designed, built and operated by the NRO. As a matter of national security, we do not discuss the companies associated with the building of our systems, our contractual relationships with them, their specific activities, or the locations where NRO systems are built.”
The agency declined to disclose the number of satellites launched or their precise orbital parameters. However, Dr. Troy Meink, principal deputy director of the NRO, hinted at a busy launch schedule during this year’s Space Symposium, mentioning plans for “approximately half a dozen of these launches” in 2024.
Notably, these missions were not part of the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 task order, as they needed to proceed before Phase 3 task order missions could be assigned. The NRO collaborated closely with the USSF Space Systems Command’s Assured Access to Space Team to ensure flexible and reliable launch solutions.
“The NRO recognized that we needed a bridge between Phase 2 to Phase 3 – Lane 1. This resulted in some missions being procured outside of NSSL,” explained an NRO spokesperson. “NSSL has, and will continue to be, the NRO’s principal mechanism to procure launch services.”
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