Falcon 9 launch pushes NRO satellite fleet past 200 in orbit

WASHINGTON — SpaceX launched a batch of small spy satellites Sept. 22 for the National Reconnaissance Office, pushing the U.S. government’s fleet of operational spacecraft past 200 in orbit.

The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 1:38 p.m. Eastern, carrying the NROL-48 mission into low Earth orbit. The flight marked the eleventh launch in the NRO’s growing “proliferated architecture” and the fifth such deployment of 2025.

The NRO, which develops and operates the nation’s spy satellites, began deploying the network more than two years ago. The constellation is designed to deliver intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and secure data relay using a distributed web of small satellites.

While details of the payload were not disclosed, the satellites are widely believed to be based on a government-specific variant of SpaceX’s Starlink design. SpaceX builds the spacecraft in partnership with Northrop Grumman, adapting commercial Starshield buses with military-grade payloads for national security use.

“Having hundreds of NRO satellites on orbit is vital to our nation and partners,” the agency said in a Sept. 22 statement. “This constellation continues to add capability and resilience to our mission through shorter revisit times, increased observational persistence, and faster processing and transmission of data.”

NRO Director Christopher Scolese confirmed last week that the agency’s fleet of more than 200 satellites includes not only the small satellites in the proliferated network, but also larger, more traditional NRO spacecraft and experimental platforms.

“We’re making very, very good progress on the proliferated architecture,” Scolese said during remarks at the Intelligence and National Security Summit. He noted the agency plans additional launches on a regular cadence through 2029.