SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket on national security mission for NRO – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX is preparing to launch a Falcon 9 rocket carrying an unknown number of satellites on behalf of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The spacecraft, believed to be Starshield satellites, form the third batch of what the NRO calls its “proliferated architecture.”

The NROL-113 mission is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 8:20 p.m. PDT (11:20 p.m. EDT, 03:20 UTC). Spaceflight Now will provide live coverage approximately 30 minutes before launch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGUKhL4FCIQ

The Falcon 9 booster supporting this mission, tail number B1063, will be launching for the 20th time. It previously supported launches of NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the Transporter 7 rideshare mission, and 14 Starlink satellite missions.

This mission is the most experienced mission to date to launch a national security mission on behalf of the NRO. The previous record holder was mission NROL-146, another Starshield launch that launched on the 16th flight of the B1071.

Approximately 8.5 minutes after launch, B1063 is scheduled to land on SpaceX's drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You.” If successful, this will be the 100th landing for this drone ship and the 345th booster landing to date.

“This is the third rollout of a promoted architecture by the NRO in four months and shows how quickly these systems are being delivered,” the NRO wrote in a September 4 social media post.

The NRO plans to launch about six missions of this expanded constellation in 2024. The last launch took place on June 29, 2024.