SpaceX launches intelligence-gathering satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office – Spaceflight Now

Updated May 11, 10:48 p.m. EDT (0248 UTC): SpaceX landed its booster on the drone ship.

The National Reconnaissance Office flew its thirteenth mission supporting an intelligence-gathering constellation it calls the “proliferated architecture” on Monday night time.

As with the primary dozen missions, this batch of satellites (of an undisclosed amount) will fly to orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The mission, dubbed NROL-172, launched from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base.

Liftoff occurred at 7:13:50 p.m. PDT (10:13:50 p.m. EDT / 0213:50 UTC), practically 4 hours after the opening of the window.



SpaceX launched the mission utilizing the Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail quantity B1097. This was its ninth flight following the launch of the Twilight rideshare, Sentinel-6B, and 6 batches of Starlink satellites.

At 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1097 landed on the drone ship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You’, positioned within the Pacific Ocean. This was the 196th touchdown on this vessel and the 610th booster touchdown to this point for SpaceX.

Given the character of reconnaissance operations, the NRO doesn’t provide a lot element on these satellites or specifics on their capabilities. It did state in its prelaunch press equipment that having a whole bunch of satellites as a part of this constellation will “provide greater revisit rates and increased coverage, and eliminate single points of failure.”

For this mission, the NRO did add some further info by noting that its Geospatial Intelligence Systems Acquisitions Directorate (GEOINT) is contributing to the satellite tv for pc constellation.

“GEOINT’s contribution to the NRO’s proliferated architecture includes electo-optical, radar, and relay satellites,” the NRO stated. “Additionally, these relay satellites enable inter-satellite optical communications and serve as a key component of the NRO’s resilient communications architecture as well as the Department of War’s (DoW) upcoming space-data network.”

The NROL-172 mission is the second flight booked on a Falcon 9 rocket as a part of the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 1 contract, managed by the United States Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC). The first of these was the NROL-145 mission, which launchd on April 20, 2025.

The two missions have been assigned to SpaceX as a part of the NSSL Task Order (NTO)-2 on Oct. 18, 2024.

“The Lane 1 path is ideal for shorter, more responsive mission timelines in addition to being the ideal entry avenue for prospective NSSL providers,” stated USSF Col. Jim Horne, Launch Execution Senior Materiel Leader,” in a press launch on the time.

Since the launch of NROL-145, there have been two different missions supporting the proliferated structure constellation: NROL-48 on Sept. 22, 2025, and NROL-105 on Jan. 16, 2026. Those two missions secured for launch onboard SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets by way of a procurement construction outdoors of the SSC’s NSSL program

In an announcement to Spaceflight Now on Monday, a NRO spokesperson stated it generally used procurement constructions outdoors of the NSSL contract, as a bridge between the conclusion of NSSL Phase 2 and of Phase 3 Lane 1. Like with all of the missions main as much as NROL-145, a NRO spokesperson stated each the NROL-48 and NROL-105 missions have been procured utilizing “the same structure as with earlier proliferated launches.”

“During a satellite system acquisition lifecycle, cost, schedule, and performance analyses are completed to determine the best way to develop, acquire, launch, and operate systems to meet Intelligence Community and warfighter requirements,” the spokesperson stated. “During those analyses, NRO makes decisions to meet those requirements most efficiently and effectively. For NRO’s proliferated architecture, NRO recognized a bridge was needed between Phase 2 to Phase 3 Lane 1. This resulted in some missions being procured outside of NSSL. Going forward, future proliferated architecture missions will be launched with a mix of NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 and missions procured through other acquisition vehicles.”

“The NRO has been a staunch supporter of NSSL since its inception and is committed to using National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 for major system acquisitions,” the NRO spokesperson stated. “The NRO is partnered with USSF Space Systems Command’s Assured Access to Space Team in the acquisition of Phase 3 and influenced the development of Phase 3, Lane 1 – as a means of procuring flexible launch solutions with tailorable mission assurance.”

“When considering our launch cadence and need for tailorable mission assurance, 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. NSSL has, and will continue to be, the NRO’s principal mechanism to procure launch services.”