SpaceX will set a new rocket-reuse record early Friday morning (March 21) when it launches a batch of spy satellites for the U.S. government.
A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base Friday at 2:49 a.m. EDT (0649 GMT; 11:49 p.m. on March 20 local California time), on the NROL-57 mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).
SpaceX will stream the action live via X, starting about 10 minutes before launch.
NROL-57 will be the eighth launch of the NRO's "proliferated architecture," which the agency describes as "a new paradigm for assets the NRO is putting on orbit."
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That paradigm features "numerous, smaller satellites designed for capability and resilience," NRO officials wrote in an NROL-57 mission description.
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That description is brief and vague, which isn't surprising; the NRO operates the United States' fleet of spy satellites, whose capabilities and activities tend to be classified. But the "proliferated architecture" network is thought to consist of "Starshield" satellites — versions of SpaceX's Starlink broadband craft that have been modified to perform reconnaissance work.
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The seven previous "proliferated architecture" missions also launched from Vandenberg on Falcon 9 rockets, between May 2024 and January of this year.
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If all goes according to plan on Friday morning, the Falcon 9's first stage will come back to Earth for a landing at Vandenberg about 7.5 minutes after launch. It will be the fourth mission for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description.
The rocket's upper stage will continue carrying the NROL-57 payloads to orbit. The mission description does not specify where or when they will be deployed.