SpaceX launched its first national security mission of the year on Friday night (Jan. 16), sending a batch of spy satellites aloft from California.
A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base Friday at 11:39 p.m. EST (8:39 p.m. local California time; 0439GMT on Jan. 17), kicking off a mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) called NROL-105.
NROL-105 was the 12th launch devoted to building out the NRO's "proliferated architecture," a new reconnaissance constellation that prioritizes flexibility, speed of deployment, cost efficiency and resilience.
"Having hundreds of small satellites on orbit is invaluable to the NRO's mission," NRO Director Chris Scolese said in the NROL-105 press kit, which you can find here.
"They will provide greater revisit rates, increased coverage, more timely delivery of information — and ultimately help us deliver more of what our customers need even faster," he added.
The proliferated architecture satellites are built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman. All of them have reached orbit aboard Falcon 9 rockets launching from Vandenberg. The first such mission, NROL-146, lifted off in May 2024.
The Falcon 9's first stage returned to Earth safely on Friday, touching down at Vandenberg about 7.5 minutes after liftoff. It was the second launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description.
We don't know how many satellites went up on NROL-105, or where and when they're scheduled to be deployed; the mission description does not reveal this information.
And we didn't get it during the webcast; SpaceX ended its livestream shortly after booster landing, likely at the NRO's request.
NROL-105 was SpaceX's seventh mission of 2026. Four of those launches have been devoted to building out the company's huge Starlink broadband megaconstellation.
Editor's note: This story was updated at 11:50 p.m. ET on Jan. 16 with news of launch and booster landing.
