SpaceX launched one other 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 immediately at 8:19 a.m. EST (1319 GMT; 5:19 a.m. native California time), carrying a set of spacecraft for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).
Today’s flight was the booster’s twenty second mission total. It got here down for a touchdown on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” within the Pacific Ocean about eight-and-a-half minutes after liftoff to mark the corporate’s 384th total restoration of an orbital-class rocket, together with each Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters. The flight was SpaceX’s 127th mission of 2024.
The mission, known as NROL-149, “is the sixth launch of NRO’s proliferated structure, eighth launch of 2024 and final launch of the 12 months!” the company stated in an X publish on Sunday (Dec. 15).
Related: SpaceX launches next-gen US spy satellites on one hundredth Falcon 9 flight of the 12 months (video, images)
“Proliferated structure” refers to a “new paradigm for belongings the NRO is placing on orbit,” NRO officers wrote in an outline of the earlier mission within the sequence, NROL-126, which launched on Nov. 30.
Those belongings, the outline added, are “quite a few, smaller satellites designed for functionality and resilience.” We do not know a lot past that; the NRO, which operates the United States’ fleet of spy satellites, tends to not present many particulars about its spacecraft or their actions.
However, the proliferated structure payloads are believed to be “Starshield” satellites — spacecraft based mostly on SpaceX’s Starlink broadband satellites, however with some high-tech reconnaissance gear hooked up.
All 5 proliferated structure missions to this point have lifted off atop Falcon 9 rockets. And all of them launched this 12 months — 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 immediately additionally lofted two earlier spy satellite tv for pc missions, NROL-113 and NROL-167, in accordance with a SpaceX mission description, in addition to NASA’s DART asteroid influence mission.
It’s unclear when and the place the Falcon 9’s higher stage will deploy the NROL-149 payloads; SpaceX’s mission description doesn’t present that data. As with most nationwide safety launches, the corporate offered no views of stage separation or payload deployment.
