SpaceX launches for NRO
SpaceX early today successfully completed a launch for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California.
The broadcast by SpaceX began after launch, had degraded visuals, and cut off immediately after the first stage, on its very first flight, touched down successfully on a drone ship in the Pacific. Very little confirmed information was released about the payload, though according to this story that payload included 20 Starlink satellites as well as an additional payload for NRO. It is also possible the Starlink satellites were that NRO payload, being the Starshield military version of Starlink.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
124 SpaceX
55 China
15 Russia
13 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise now leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 143 to 83, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 124 to 102.
SpaceX early today successfully completed a launch for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California.
The broadcast by SpaceX began after launch, had degraded visuals, and cut off immediately after the first stage, on its very first flight, touched down successfully on a drone ship in the Pacific. Very little confirmed information was released about the payload, though according to this story that payload included 20 Starlink satellites as well as an additional payload for NRO. It is also possible the Starlink satellites were that NRO payload, being the Starshield military version of Starlink.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
124 SpaceX
55 China
15 Russia
13 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise now leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 143 to 83, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 124 to 102.