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SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launches Spy Satellite for US Agency
Confirmed
In Short: The SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launched a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) from Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39A on Thursday night.
The SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launched a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) from Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39A on Thursday night.
The launch was originally scheduled for April but was delayed due to an oxidizer leak discovered in the Falcon Heavy’s B1087 center core during tests at the SpaceX Rocket Development Facility in McGregor, Texas.
The rocket lifted off at 11:53 p.m. EDT, carrying a payload fairing previously used on the NROL-95 mission in July.
The mission is the first NRO flight procured through the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 2 contract, which was awarded in 2025.
The Falcon Heavy's core stage, serial number B1106, is brand new and will be expended on this mission.
The mission's high-energy requirements and direct insertion of the payload into a 22,300-mile Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) necessitated the use of the Falcon Heavy's full capabilities.
Meanwhile, the center core, B1087, will burn out and be discarded just shy of four minutes into the mission, after which the second stage will ignite for the first of three burns to loft the payload into GEO.
This launch is part of a series of three planned Falcon Heavy missions in 2024, with another pair of missions later in the fall, including one in October with NASA’s Jupiter-bound Europa Clipper and a second no sooner than November carrying Astrobotic, Inc.’s Griffin-1 lunar lander and NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER).
What this adds
The Falcon Heavy's previous missions include launching the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the Crew 13 mission.
SpaceX has launched 130 payloads on the Transporter 13 rideshare mission from its West Coast pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
What's confirmed
- The SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launched a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) from Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39A on Thursday night.
- The launch was originally scheduled for April but was delayed due to an oxidizer leak discovered in the Falcon Heavy’s B1087 center core during tests at the SpaceX Rocket Development Facility in McGregor, Texas.
- The rocket lifted off at 11:53 p.m. EDT, carrying a payload fairing previously used on the NROL-95 mission in July.
- The mission is the first NRO flight procured through the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 2 contract, which was awarded in 2025.
- The Falcon Heavy's core stage, serial number B1106, is brand new and will be expended on this mission.
- The mission's high-energy requirements and direct insertion of the payload into a 22,300-mile Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) necessitated the use of the Falcon Heavy's full capabilities.
- Meanwhile, the center core, B1087, will burn out and be discarded just shy of four minutes into the mission, after which the second stage will ignite for the first of three burns to loft the payload into GEO.
- This launch is part of a series of three planned Falcon Heavy missions in 2024, with another pair of missions later in the fall, including one in October with NASA’s Jupiter-bound Europa Clipper and a second no sooner than November carrying Astrobotic, Inc.’s Griffin-1 lunar lander and NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER).
What's still developing
- According to SpaceX in a media update late Monday, this will be the highest ascent performance for any GOES mission, in order to best preserve energy expenditure.
- Notably, the two side-boosters were making their second flights, having previously flown as “single-stick” Falcon 9s in May and July 2016 before being reconfigured for the Heavy.
- The giant rocket will lift off from historic Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, laden with the 11,000-pound (5,000-kilogram) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-U) for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
- Flying tonight’s mission, the high-energy requirements and direct insertion of GOES-U into a 22,300-mile (35,900-kilogram) Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) requires B1087 to be expended, while the B1072 and B1086 side-boosters will be recovered, returning to synchronized touchdowns on Landing Zones (LZ)-1 and 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, about eight minutes and 11 seconds after liftoff.
- After passing the phase of peak aerodynamic turbulence, colloquially known as “Max Q”, about 71 seconds into today’s flight, the Heavy’s side-boosters will burn out and separate at 2.5 minutes after liftoff, returning to alight on LZ-1 and LZ-2 at eight minutes and 11 seconds.
- B1104 is making its second flight and B1072 is on its fourth mission.
- In addition to the Crew 13 mission, the company launched 130 payloads on the Transporter 13 rideshare mission from its West Coast pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
- Like most NRO missions, little is publicly known about the nature the flight.
- The Falcon Heavy soars by the rising Sun as it departs Florida’s space coast with the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
- EDT when the Falcon Heavy's three core stages, each powered by nine kerosene-burning Merlin engines, roared to life, throttled up to more than five million pounds of thrust and majestically climbed away from historic Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.
- SpaceX is dialing back its Falcon 9 launch program, and there is no certainty about when SpaceX’s reusable next-generation super-heavy-lift rocket, Starship, will carry anything to orbit besides the company’s own Starlink satellites.
- This is despite the blistering launch cadence we’ve seen around the world in recent years, led by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.