{"id":10075,"date":"2024-06-29T18:56:29","date_gmt":"2024-06-29T10:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-launches-multiple-satellites-for-the-nro-from-vandenberg-space-force-base\/"},"modified":"2024-06-29T18:56:29","modified_gmt":"2024-06-29T10:56:29","slug":"spacex-launches-multiple-satellites-for-the-nro-from-vandenberg-space-force-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-launches-multiple-satellites-for-the-nro-from-vandenberg-space-force-base\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX launches multiple satellites for the NRO from Vandenberg Space Force Base"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_66622\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-66622\" style=\"width: 876px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-66622\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240628_NROL-186_launch.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"876\" height=\"412\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240628_NROL-186_launch.jpg 876w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240628_NROL-186_launch-300x141.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240628_NROL-186_launch-678x319.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240628_NROL-186_launch-768x361.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-66622\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on the NROL-186 mission on June 28, 2024. Image: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>SpaceX launched a national security mission on behalf of the United States\u2019 National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) from Vandenberg Space Force Base Friday night. The spy agency described the classified mission as \u201cthe second launch of NRO\u2019s proliferated architecture, delivering critical space-based ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) to the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Falcon 9 rocket supporting this mission lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at the opening of a two-hour window, 8:14 p.m. PDT (11:14 p.m. EDT, 0314 UTC).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/V0ofmSePqRM\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1081 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for an eighth time. Its previous missions included the launches of the Crew-7 astronaut mission to the International Space Station, two climate monitoring satellites (NASA\u2019s PACE and the European Space Agency\u2019s EarthCARE) and two Starlink flights.<\/p>\n<p>A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1081 landed on the droneship, \u2018Of Course I Still Love You.\u2019 This was the 95th booster landing for OCISLY and the 326th booster landing to date.<\/p>\n<h4>Proliferated architecture grows<\/h4>\n<p>This mission was the second launch of the NRO\u2019s so-called \u201cproliferated architecture,\u201d following the launch of the NROL-146 mission in May. Reporting from Reuters earlier this year suggested that these satellites are based on the SpaceX-built Starshield satellite bus in partnership with Northrop Grumman.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement to Spaceflight Now, the NRO said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNRO systems are designed, built and operated by the NRO. As a matter of national security we do not discuss the companies associated with the building of our systems, our contractual relationships with them, their specific activities, or the locations where NRO systems are built.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The agency also declined to confirm how many satellites are on these missions as well as their orbit. In a speech before this year\u2019s Space Symposium in Colorado,<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> Dr. Troy Meink, the principal deputy director of the NRO, said there would be \u201capproximately half a dozen of these launches\u201d this year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>These mission were not procured as part of the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 task order. That\u2019s because the NRO needed these missions to move forward prior to the Phase 3 task order missions being assigned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe NRO is partnered with USSF Space Systems Command\u2019s Assured Access to Space Team in the acquisition of Phase 3 and influenced the development of Phase 3, Lane 1 \u2013 as a means of procuring flexible launch solutions with tailorable mission assurance,\u201d an NRO spokesperson said in a statement. \u201d 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 \u2013 Lane 1. This resulted in some missions being procured outside of NSSL. NSSL has, and will continue to be, the NRO\u2019s principal mechanism to procure launch services.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on the NROL-186 mission on June 28, 2024. Image: SpaceX SpaceX launched a national security mission on behalf of the United States\u2019 National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) from Vandenberg Space Force Base Friday night. The spy agency described the classified mission as \u201cthe second [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[479,290,1354,316,849],"class_list":["post-10075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-falcon-9","tag-nro","tag-nrol-186","tag-spacex","tag-starshield"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10075"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10075\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}