The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is to begin building a constellation of unknown size in the middle of the night with a launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The mission, called NROL-146, includes an undisclosed number of satellites aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) is set for the start of the launch window, which will open at 1:00 a.m. PDT (4:00 a.m. EDT, 0800 UTC).
Spaceflight Now will be live approximately 30 minutes prior to launch.
The Falcon 9 first-stage booster supporting this mission with terminal number B1071 will launch for the sixteenth time in the SpaceX fleet. Its first two flights were for NRO missions and it also launched a pair of joint Transporter flights.
A little more than eight minutes after launch, B1071 lands on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Of course I still love you.’ This is to be the 91st recovery for OCISLY and the 310th booster landing to date for SpaceX.
Starshield flies
While the details of the mission are largely under wraps, the payload on board is believed to be a cluster of Starshield satellites. These are the government versions of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, which the company previously said are focused on three main areas:
- Earth observation
- communication
- Hosted payload
Before the final launch of the Delta 4 Heavy with a load of NROL-70 Dr. Chris Scolese, head of the NRO, noted that the agency began launching prototypes for its constellation “about five years ago.”
“We realized that we have problems, as we mentioned, with Russia and China trying to deny our ability to operate in space,” Scolese said in March. “So that was one reason. Another reason we needed it is that we realized we needed to have more permanent coverage of the Earth. So we needed to expand.”
Scolese said this includes working with commercial providers to reduce costs. He did not mention the SpaceX check in his comments, but was responding to a question that referred to Reuters coverage of Starshield.
In April, Reuters first reported that Northrop Grumman was working with SpaceX to test some Starshield satellites as well as provide sensors for some of the spacecraft. The planned constellation will reportedly consist of “hundreds of satellites”, although a more specific number has not been announced.
The telco was also the first to report that SpaceX was tapped to win a previously undisclosed $1.8 billion contract for a new NRO constellation in 2021.
During his remarks at Space Symposium 2024 in Colorado, Dr. Noting the upcoming launch of NROL-146, NRO Senior Deputy Director Troy Meink said that NRO has “already launched a number of demonstrations over the past several years. to verify cost and performance, but this will be the first run of the operating system.”
“These systems will increase timeliness of access, diversify communication paths and strengthen our resilience,” Meink said. “Around half a dozen of these launches are planned for 2024, with more launches expected through 2028. You will hear more details about launch locations, dates and times as they get closer.”
The NRO is not the only government agency calling for the use of the Starshield satellite bus. SpaceX also built some satellites for the Space Development Agency, part of the US Space Force, which launched in 2023 as part of its Tracking Layer Tranche 0A and 0B missions.