NROL-146 Mission: SpaceX Launches Next-gen Spy Satellites To Orbit For US Reconnaissance Office

On NROL-146 mission, May 22, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a batch of spy satellites from the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), lifted off at 0800 UTC, from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The Falcon 9 first stage returned back to Earth around nine minutes after liftoff, touching down on the drone ship 'Of Course I still Love You,' stationed in the Pacific Ocean. This was the 16th launch and landing for this particular Falcon 9 booster, according to SpaceX. Wednesday's launch was also the company's 52nd orbital liftoff in 2024, 36 of which have been devoted to building out the company's Starlink broadband constellation.

The NRO typically reveals little about its satellites' activities and capabilities. And as it's typical with its national security missions, SpaceX did not show any footage of the stages of the Falcon 9 rocket separating. There's also no public information about the payload deployed to orbit.

In a mission description, NRO stated that NROL-146 will be the first launch of its "proliferated architecture." The agency explained that the mission's tagline, 'Strength in Numbers' "describes the NRO's new strategy of a proliferated overhead architecture -- numerous, smaller satellites designed for capability and resilience."

WATCH the launch of NROL-146 mission