SpaceX launched a pair of ocean surveillance satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office on Sunday for the NROL-85 mission. The satellite lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 6:13 AM PDT (13:13 UTC). A flight-proven Falcon 9 was used to deliver the satellites into orbit, while the first stage returned to Vandenberg for a landing.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
NRO Launch 85 (NROL-85) is the fourth dedicated Falcon 9 mission that SpaceX will carry out for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The NRO is responsible for operating the United States\u2019 fleet of intelligence-gathering satellites. Like most NRO missions, many details of Sunday\u2019s launch \u2013 and its payload \u2013 are classified information.<\/p>\n
SpaceX carried out its first mission for the NRO with the NROL-76 launch in May 2017, which was the thirty-third flight of Falcon 9 overall and the first time the rocket had flown for the US military. The NROL-108 launch followed in December 2020, with SpaceX\u2019s most recent mission from the agency being NROL-87 in February this year.<\/p>\n
The NROL-85 mission is unusual in that the launch\u2019s target orbit was published in advance. Normally this information is considered highly sensitive and remains classified. However, when the US Air Force put the launch contract out for bidding in 2018, an attachment to the request for proposals included the requirements for delivery of the satellites in terms of orbital parameters and accuracy.<\/p>\n
This called for a semi-major axis of 7,500.5 kilometers at an eccentricity of 0.0131, corresponding to a 1,024-by-1,220-kilometer deployment orbit. The document also gave the target inclination as 63.535 degrees inclination and an argument of perigee of 190.0 degrees.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n