SpaceX is preparing for the launch of a national security payload for the nation’s secretive spy satellite agency, the National Reconnaissance Office. The flight will also likely see the the final Falcon 9 booster recovery at Landing Zone 2 at Cape Canaveral.
The mission, dubbed National Reconnaissance Office Launch 77 (NROL-77), includes at least one payload, which the intelligence-gathering agency only describes as being “designed, built, and operated by NRO.”
Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is scheduled for 2:16 p.m. EST (1916 UTC). The launch will follow a north-easterly trajectory upon leaving Florida’s Space Coast.
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about an hour before launch.
SpaceX is using Falcon 9 first stage booster B1096. This will be its fourth launch after previously flying NASA’s IMAP, Amazon’s Kuiper Falcon 01 and Starlink 6-87.
Nearly eight and a half minutes after liftoff, B1096 will target a return to the Florida Peninsula with a touchdown at Landing Zone 2 (LZ-2). If successful, the will be the 16th touchdown at LZ-2 and the 547th booster landing to date for SpaceX.
Executing a contract
The NROL-77 mission is the second NRO mission launched by SpaceX as part of the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 contract awarded in August 2020. The contract was broken up to assign missions between SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA) over five order years for specific missions.
This is the first mission that comes from Order Year 5 that was announced on Oct. 31, 2023. It was one of ten missions assigned to SpaceX that year, which has a combined value of $1.236 billion.
The NSSL Phase 2 contract is an acquisition partnership managed by the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command’s Assured Access to Space.
Some missions though, like the NROL-146 mission and other flights supporting the NRO’s so-called proliferated architecture satellite constellation, are funded through other avenues that are part of the agency’s classified budget.
“When considering our launch cadence and need for tailorable mission assurance, the NRO recognized that we needed a bridge between Phase 2 to Phase 3 – Lane 1,” an NRO spokesperson said in a statement to Spaceflight Now back in May 2024. “This resulted in some missions being procured outside of NSSL.”
The NRO said in its press kit that NROL-77 is its tenth and final launch of 2025, nine of which flew on Falcon 9 rockets:
- Jan. 09 – NROL-153
- Jan. 14 – Transporter-12 (rideshare payload)
- Mar. 14 – Transporter-13 (rideshare payload)
- Mar. 20 – NROL-57
- Mar. 24 – NROL-69
- Apr. 12 – NROL-192
- Apr. 16 – NROL-174 (launched on Minotaur 4 rocket)
- Apr. 20 – NROL-145
- Sep. 22 – NROL-48
- Dec. 09 – NROL-77
End of an era
The planned landing of B1096 at LZ-2 may very well wrap up SpaceX’s time using this site as a landing location for its Falcon boosters.
In an effort to increase access to launch providers at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Space Launch Delta 45 decided all launch providers need to return their rocket boosters to landing sites at their launch pads.
SpaceX has been taking the necessary steps to shift its recovery infrastructure away from LZ-1 and LZ-2. The company’s lease for these sites ends on Dec. 31, 2025.
SpaceX received the environmental approvals needed to move forward with a landing pad near (SLC-40) and has been making constructing that facility over the course of 2025.
The company is also looking to add a landing pad at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. SpaceX needs two landing zones in order to recover the side boosters of a Falcon Heavy rocket.
