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SpaceX continues to stay busy.
One of the members of the company Falcon 9 Rockets took off from California Vandenberg Space Force Base tonight (September 5) at 11:20 p.m. EDT (8:20 p.m. local California time; 3:20 a.m. GMT on September 6), sending out a batch of next-generation spies satellites in flight for the United States National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).
It was SpaceXSecond launch of the day; another Falcon 9 delivered 21 of the company’s Starlink internet satellites into orbit from Florida’s Space Coast this morning.
The Falcon 9 successfully landed on tonight’s mission, which the NRO has named NROL-113. About 8.5 minutes after liftoff, the booster gently touched down on the deck of the SpaceX drone ship Of Course I Still Love You, which was stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
This was the 20th launch and landing of this particular booster, according to a statement from SpaceX. mission descriptionFourteen of these flights were Starlink missions.
NROL-113 was the third launch for the NRO’s “proliferated architecture,” a new network of “many smaller satellites designed for capacity and resiliency,” the agency wrote in a statement. mission descriptionSpaceX also launched the first two missions in the series: NROL-146 in May and NROL-186 in June.
We don’t know much about the Proliferative Architecture satellites or what they do in orbit; their missions and activities are classified, as are those of most NRO craft (the agency operates the nation’s spy satellite fleet).
Related: SpaceX launches next-generation US spy satellites, successfully lands (video)
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SpaceX has now launched 86 orbital missions in 2024, about 70% of which were Starlink flights.
As today’s doubleheader shows, the company is back in full swing after two setbacks this summer. SpaceX took the station offline for about two weeks after a Falcon 9 upper stage failure during a Starlink launch on July 11. And it went three days without a flight after a failed booster landing during a successful Starlink mission on Aug. 28.
