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

Update 10:24 a.m. EST (1524 UTC) November 30: Added NRO post-launch statement.

SpaceX launched a mission early Saturday that combines national security satellites with those supporting its non-governmental Starlink satellite network.

Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California occurred at 12:10 a.m. PST (3:10 a.m. EST, 0810 UTC) on Saturday, November 30, hours after successful launch of the Starlink 6-65 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The National Reconnaissance Office described the NROL-126 mission as the fifth launch of its so-called “proliferative architecture.” This low Earth orbit constellation is believed to consist of Starshield satellites, a government-specific variant of SpaceX’s more public-facing Starlink satellites. Surprisingly, SpaceX said the mission also included 20 of its Starlink satellites.

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 followed the profile of previous missions in support of the proliferative architecture: it headed for an inclination of 70 degrees. However, the inclusion of 20 Starlink satellites in the flight meant that there probably weren’t many Starshield satellites on board the Falcon 9 rocket, but neither the NRO nor SpaceX have revealed an exact number.

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

“This mission is the fifth launch of the NRO’s advanced architecture and demonstrates the efficiency of on-orbit delivery for this program,” the NRO said in a statement after the launch. “Today’s successful mission follows the launch of NROL-167
on October 24, and the sustained pace of deployment continues to diversify NRO’s operational satellite constellation.”

When first announcing the agency’s expanded architecture, the NGO said there would be about six launches for the project by the end of 2024. Since then, they appear to have added two more missions, 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)
• 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)

In its statement after the launch, the NGO said that “further launches are expected through 2028.”

The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission was launched for the first time. The tail number is believed to be B1088. Just over eight minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9 first stage booster landed on SpaceX’s Of Course I Still Love You drone ship positioned in the Pacific Ocean. It was the 111th booster landing on OCISLY and the 377th booster landing to date

Out of sight?

The announcement of the NROL-126 mission marked the second time that SpaceX released a webpage for one of its Falcon 9 launches, but did not provide a way for the public to watch the launch 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 it launched the Starlink 9-13 mission from VSFB on November 24th.

There were no pre-launch tweets leading up to both of these flights, and in both cases SpaceX posted a livestream on X, formerly known as Twitter, after the rockets left the launch pad.