A National Reconnaissance Office national security payload has reached space onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 reusable rocket during the agency’s first launch in 2022 and eighth in 24 months.
The NROL-87 mission placed a classified spacecraft into an orbit that would provide support U.S. overhead reconnaissance operations, the intelligence agency said Wednesday.
The satellite and Falcon 9 lifted off at Vanderberg Space Force Base in California, with the rocket’s reusable booster landing safely at the facility’s Landing Zone 4.
The mission is the first Falcon 9 launch service NRO procured from SpaceX from the National Security Space Launch acquisition contract
