SpaceX Launches Combination of NRO Starshield and Starlink Satellites on Falcon 9 Flight – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX is preparing to launch a mission that will combine national security satellites with those supporting its non-governmental Starlink satellite network.

A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base on a mission first announced by the National Reconnaissance Office as NROL-126. The intelligence agency described the operation as the fifth launch of its so-called “proliferative architecture.”

Launch from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) is scheduled for Saturday, November 30, at 12:10 a.m. PST (3:10 a.m. EST, 0810 UTC). It comes a few hours after the successful launch of the Starlink 6-65 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

This low Earth orbit constellation is believed to consist of Starshield satellites, a government-specific variant of SpaceX’s more public-facing Starlink satellites. SpaceX announced that the mission will also include 20 of its Starlink satellites, in addition to the Starshield satellites for the NROL-126 mission.

Since September 20, all dedicated Starlink missions launched from VSFB reached an inclination of 53 degrees and included 20 Starlink satellites, 13 of which had direct-to-cell capabilities.

The NROL-126 mission is intended to follow the pattern set by previous missions in support of the proliferative architecture: it is intended to head for an inclination of 70 degrees. However, the inclusion of 20 Starlink satellites in the flight means there likely won’t be many Starshield satellites aboard the Falcon 9 rocket, but neither the NRO nor SpaceX have commented on this.

The largest number of V2 mini Starlink satellites launched simultaneously from VSFB was 23 on the Starlink 11-1 mission in August 2024.

In first announcing the agency’s expanded architecture, the NGO said six supporting launches were planned by the end of 2024. Since then, two more missions appear to have been added, NROL-153 and NROL-192, which are scheduled to launch before the end of the year.

“To stay ahead of the competition and ensure it can continue to operate in a heightened threat environment, the NRO is modernizing its architecture in space and on the ground – to deliver more capabilities more quickly with increased resilience,” the NRO wrote in a press kit before the start. “A greater number of satellites – large and small, government and commercial, in multiple orbits – will provide an order of magnitude more signals and images than are available today.

“The NRO continues to build and strengthen the largest government constellation in history – made possible by a particularly dynamic 18-month period ending at the end of this year, during which approximately 12 missions will have been launched and more than 100 payloads will have been launched into orbit.”

These missions are then listed below, including start dates for those that have already flown:

• June 22, 2023 – NROL-68 (ULA – Delta 4 Heavy)
• September 10, 2023 – NROL-107/Silentbarker (ULA – Atlas 5 551)
• March 21, 2024 – NROL-123 (Rocket Laboratory – Electron)
• April 9, 2024 – NROL-70 (ULA – Delta 4 Heavy)
• May 22, 2024 – NROL-146 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)
• June 28, 2024 – NROL-186 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)
• September 5, 2024 – NROL-113 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)
• Oct. 24, 2024 – NROL-167 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)
• NET November 30, 2024 – NROL-126 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)
• NET Dec. 2024 – NROL-149 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)
• NET Dec. 2024 – NROL-153 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)
• NET Dec. 2024 – NROL-192 (SpaceX – Falcon 9)

The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission will launch on its first mission. The tail number is believed to be B1088.

Just over eight minutes after launch, the Falcon 9 first stage booster rocket will land on SpaceX’s Of Course I Still Love You drone ship positioned in the Pacific Ocean. If successful, this would be the 111th booster landing on OCISLY and the 377th booster landing to date.

Out of sight?

The announcement of the NROL-126 mission marks the second time that SpaceX has published a webpage for one of its Falcon 9 launches but has not offered a way for the public to watch it live. The special situation has so far only been implemented on the two most recent Falcon 9 launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base.

Those who navigate to the SpaceX main page can usually scroll to an upcoming launch and see a button that says “Watch” with a hyperlink that leads to another page with more mission information and a link to the live stream. However, on NROL-126 the button says “Learn More” and leads to a mission page without any livestream notices.

SpaceX presented a similar situation when launching the Starlink 9-13 mission from VSFB on November 24th.

Leading up to this Starlink flight, there were no pre-launch tweets, and the rocket took off without anyone outside VSFB having a chance to see the beginnings of the mission. Surprisingly, SpaceX published a livestream on X, formerly Twitter, almost two minutes after launch, which was shared by both the company and founder Elon Musk.

Those interested in the mission will have to wait and see whether there will be another surprise livestream or whether SpaceX will carry out the entire mission without sharing it directly with the public.