Update June 19, 6:11 a.m. EDT (1011 UTC): SpaceX landed the booster at Landing Zone 4.
SpaceX launched its third mission this year supporting the National Reconnaissance Office’s constellation of intelligence-gathering satellites.
The mission, dubbed NROL-179, launched an undisclosed number of satellites into orbit as part of what the NRO calls its proliferated architecture constellation. These are believed to be Starshield satellites, a government variant of SpaceX’s Starlink, though neither the NRO nor SpaceX has confirmed on the record that this is the case.
Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket from pad happened Friday, June 19, at 1:50:45 a.m. PDT (4:50:45 a.m. EDT / 0850:45 UTC).
SpaceX launched the mission using the Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail number B1103. This was its third flight following the launches of Starlink 17-35 and 17-42 in April and May respectively.
Fewer than eight minutes after liftoff, B1103 returned to California for touchdown at Landing Zone 4. This was the 35th landing at that site and the 626th booster landing for SpaceX to date.
This was SpaceX’s 14th launch supporting the NRO’s low Earth orbit constellation and the third of the year so far. The NRO said it envisions having “hundreds of small satellites on orbit” in order to “provide greater revisit rates Ian increased coverage. And even eliminate single points of failure.”
The agency hasn’t disclosed the desired size of the constellation or many details about the scope of the network. It has said that it’s Geospatial Intelligence Systems Acquisitions Directorate (GEOINT) does contribute components to the proliferated architecture.
“GEOINT’s contribution to the NRO’s proliferated architecture includes electro-optical, radar, and relay satellites,” the NRO wrote in its prelaunch press kit. “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.”
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