SpaceX Breaks the NRO Booster Turnaround Record with the Launch of its 450th Falcon 9 Rocket
The National Reconnaissance Office’s proliferated architectural constellation was supported by the launch of its eighth set of satellites. A record-breaking turnaround time for its booster is one of several noteworthy achievements for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket program that are part of the mission.
The number of satellites carried by the rocket is unknown, but it is thought to be Starshield, a government version of the Starlink satellites, which SpaceX and Northrop Grumman jointly build. SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 for the 450th time.
On March 20 at 11:49 p.m. PDT, the spacecraft lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base (2:49 a.m. EDT, 0649 UTC on March 21). After the January launch of NROL-153, this was the second launch this year that supported the design.
The first stage rocket used by SpaceX was a Falcon 9 with tail number B1088. It has previously supported the launches of NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH ride-share mission, the Transporter-12 smallsat ride-share mission, which had 131 satellites, and NROL-126, a combination of Starlink and Starshield satellites. This was its fourth launch.
Nine days before Thursday night’s launch of NROL-57, the last of those lifted off on March 12. The previous record for the turnaround time of a Falcon 9 first stage rocket, set by B1080 at 13.5 days, was easily surpassed by SpaceX with this launch.
B1088 made the 26th booster landing at Landing Zone 4 and the 421st booster landing overall when it touched down at LZ-4 just over 7.5 minutes after liftoff.
The number of satellites on each of these proliferated architecture flights is not disclosed by SpaceX or the NRO. In order to sustain this constellation, the NRO said it aims to have “hundreds of small satellites” in low Earth orbit.
About half of the agency’s twelve launches under its 2025 manifesto support the constellation of proliferating architectures. Three further proliferated architecture launches scheduled for this year were announced by the NRO in a launch press package. They are designated as NROL-192, NROL-48, and NROL-145.
