SpaceX launched a pilot batch of spy satellites for the US government early Wednesday (May 22).
A Falcon 9 rocket launched mission NROL-146 for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) at 4 a.m. EDT (0800 GMT; 1 a.m. local California time) from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
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Six minutes after launch, the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket began burning its entry and it returned to Earth.
Nine minutes after the first stage was launched, the drone struck the off-course I Still Love You docked in the Pacific Ocean. This was the 16th launch and landing of this particular Falcon 9 first stage rocket.
A Job description, NRO says NROL-146 is “the first release of NRO’s augmented architecture.” The company explains a little more about that architecture when discussing its mission tagline, “Strength in Numbers.”
That motto “describes the incremental overhead architecture of NRO’s new strategy — numerous, small satellites designed for efficiency and resilience,” NRO officials wrote.
So rather than one bulky spacecraft, it is safe to assume that NROL-146 was a series of small satellites launched as part of the ill-fated project.
A SpaceX mission descriptionSpaceX did not provide details on where the satellites are headed or the expected time for their deployment, which SpaceX typically covers for unclassified missions.
Wednesday morning’s launch will be SpaceX’s 52nd orbital liftoff in 2024. Of the 52 launches this year to date, 36 have been dedicated to building the company’s Starlink broadband constellation.
