Launch of Starshield satellites by SpaceX from California aboard Falcon 9 rocket

SpaceX delivered the newest Starshield satellites to the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) on Thursday night with the successful launch of its first West Coast Falcon 9 of the year. The NROL-153 mission lifted off at 7:53 p.m. PST (10:53 p.m. EST, 0353 UTC) from Pad 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base, marking SpaceX’s fourth orbital mission of the year.

The mission included the 22nd flight of Falcon 9’s first stage booster, B1071. This veteran booster had previously supported a variety of missions, including NASA’s SWOT spacecraft, three Transporter rideshare missions, 13 Starlink launches, and four earlier NRO missions. B1071 successfully landed on the droneship “Of Course I Still Love You,” which is positioned in the Pacific Ocean, after the launch. This marked the 116th successful recovery for the droneship and the 394th booster recovery in SpaceX’s history.

NROL-153 marks the first of several planned launches this year for the NRO, furthering its efforts to expand its proliferated architecture satellite constellation. At least five Falcon 9 rocket launches are scheduled for 2025, while the NRO successfully conducted six flights using these rockets in 2024. The agency continues to focus on deploying hundreds of satellites in low Earth orbit to enhance revisit rates, expand coverage, accelerate data delivery, and better meet the needs of its partners and customers.

Automation is playing a pivotal role in managing this growing constellation. Dr. T.J. Lincoln, director of the NRO’s Mission Operations Directorate, emphasized the necessity of automation for handling the complexities of operating hundreds of satellites. Speaking at the Space Force Association’s Spacepower Conference, he noted that tasks like mission management and re-tasking must be automated, with human oversight ensuring operational success.

Col. Eric Zarybnisky of the U.S. Space Force highlighted the importance of automation in reducing the time it takes to deliver intelligence from orbit to decision-makers. “We need to get data in seconds, not minutes or hours,” he stated, adding that technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning will drive this transformation.

The constellation is believed to be composed of Starshield satellites, a government-adapted version of SpaceX’s commercial Starlink satellites, developed in partnership with Northrop Grumman. Although specifics about these satellites remain undisclosed, the collaboration reflects the growing integration of commercial and government space initiatives to bolster national security capabilities.