The National Reconnaissance Office launched the NROL-149 mission from the Space Launch Complex-4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Tuesday.
The government agency said Tuesday it partnered with the U.S. Space Force Space Launch Delta 30 and SpaceX for this latest mission. The NROL-149 was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
NRO’s 2024 Launches
NRO completed six launches supporting NRO’s proliferated architecture in 2024, including NROL-149. It was preceded by the launch of NROL-126 on Nov. 30. The agency launched eight total missions this year with the latest mission being NRO’s last launch for 2024.
The agency completed 10 missions in a span of 18 months starting in June 2023, with NROL-68 as the first to be launched during this period. These missions enabled NRO to deliver over 100 payloads on orbit. NRO intends to launch more missions through 2028.
NRO has been working with the military and civil sectors, the intelligence community and allied partners for over six decades, providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems. The agency intends to continue developing systems that will quickly deliver data to users.