SpaceX continues to be busy.
One of the company’s Falcon 9 rockets lifted off tonight (September 5th) at 11:20pm EDT (8:20pm California local time, 3:20am GMT September 6th) from Vandenberg Space Command Center in California to launch a constellation of next-generation spy satellites for the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).
This was SpaceX’s second launch of the day, as another Falcon 9 launched 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 SpaceX’s unmanned “Of Course I Still Love You” vehicle, which was parked in the Pacific Ocean.
According to SpaceX, this was the booster’s 20th launch and landing. Mission DescriptionOf those flights, 14 were Starlink missions.
NROL-113 was the third launch of the NRO’s “proliferative architecture,” a new network made up of “a multitude of small satellites designed for capability and resilience,” the agency said in the report. 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 proliferating architecture of satellites or what they do in orbit; their missions and activities are classified, as are most NRO aircraft. (The agency operates the nation’s constellation of spy satellites.)
Related: SpaceX launches next-generation US spy satellite and successfully lands it (video)
SpaceX plans to launch 86 orbital missions in 2024, with roughly 70% of those being Starlink flights.
As today’s doubleheader shows, the company is back at full speed after a pair of troubles this summer: SpaceX grounded its flights for about two weeks after its Falcon 9 upper stage failed during a Starlink launch on July 11. And while the Starlink mission on August 28 was successful, it didn’t fly for three days after a booster landing failure.
