Update Oct. 1, 12:21 a.m. EDT (0421 UTC): SpaceX landed its two side boosters.
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launched from Florida Thursday night on a classified mission for the National Reconnaissance Office, America’s spy satellite agency.
Codenamed NROL-97, the mission blasted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 11:54 p.m. EDT (0354 UTC). It took a north-easterly trajectory on departure from Florida’s Space Coast.
The NRO has previously flown payloads on 22 Falcon 9 rockets but this is the first time it has used the heavy-lift Falcon Heavy, which consists of three Falcon 9 boosters and an upper stage, topped by a payload fairing.
The powerful rocket, which lifts off under the power of 27 Merlin 1D engines, was introduced to great fanfare in 2018 and made its 14th flight Thursday night.
Like most NRO missions, little is publicly known about the nature the flight. It was the first NRO mission to fly after being procured in 2025 through the competitive National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 2 contract.
The Falcon Heavy core stage, serial number B1106, was brand new and was expended on this mission. The rocket’s side boosters both flew just a month ago to launch NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. B1104 made its second flight and B1072 was on its fourth mission.
The side boosters returned to Landing Zones 1 and 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station with thunderous sonic booms. SpaceX returned LZ-1 to service for this mission after it was replaced by LZ-40 at Space Launch Complex 40. However, that landing pad was used earlier in the day on Thursday by the booster returning from launching the Crew 13 mission, B1101.
The NRO said the payload fairing was previously used on the NROL-95 mission in July.
NROL-97 was SpaceX’s third Falcon launch of the day. In addition to the Crew 13 mission, the company launched 130 payloads on the Transporter 13 rideshare mission from its West Coast pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It was the first time the company has landed four boosters in a single day.
