SpaceX late on Friday launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying an undisclosed number of intelligence-gathering satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office, continuing the agency’s push to expand its space-based surveillance network.
The mission, designated NROL-105, lifted off at 8:39:51 p.m. PST from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base. The payload was sent to low Earth orbit and is widely believed to consist of Starshield spacecraft, a government-focused variant of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites.
“Today’s mission is the twelfth overall launch of the NRO’s proliferated architecture and first of approximately a dozen NRO launches scheduled throughout 2026 consisting of proliferated and national security missions,” the NRO said in a post-launch statement. “Having hundreds of NRO satellites on orbit is critical to supporting our nation and its partners.”
The NRO began deploying its new generation of satellites in May 2024 and has now conducted 11 launches on Falcon 9 rockets, procured outside the National Security Space Launch contracting framework. The agency has said its objective is to establish the largest government satellite constellation in history, with launches planned through 2029.
According to the NRO, the proliferated architecture is designed to improve resilience and responsiveness by reducing revisit times and eliminating single points of failure. “With hundreds of small satellites on orbit, data will be delivered in minutes or even seconds,” the agency said in its prelaunch materials.
SpaceX reused a Falcon 9 first-stage booster on the mission, which returned to Earth and landed at Landing Zone 4 near the launch site about 7.5 minutes after liftoff. The recovery marked the company’s 560th successful booster landing to date.
