The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and U.S. Space Force on Sunday launched the agency’s 10th proliferated architecture mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., the NRO said on Monday.
The launch is the fourth in the proliferated architecture series thus far this year and brings to “more than 200” the number of satellites put into orbit by the NRO in the last two years, the agency said.
The agency said the first proliferated architecture launch was last May and that NRO satellite launch volume has increased since June 2023 to more than 100, more than 150, and now more than 200 (Defense Daily, Apr. 9, 2024).
NROL-145 is the first NRO mission undertaken with Space Systems Command’s Assured Access to Space organization under the National Security Space Launch Phase 3, Lane 1 task order awarded last October.
Last Wednesday, NRO and the Space Force launched NROL-174 aboard a Northrop Grumman [NOC] Minotaur IV rocket in what NRO said was the first Minotaur launch for NRO from Vandenberg since 2011 (Defense Daily, Apr. 16). A decommissioned Peacekeeper ICBM supplies Minotaur IV with solid rocket motors for its first three stages, and the rocket uses a commercial upper stage.
Previous Minotaur launches for the NRO include the NROL-111 and NROL-129 missions from Wallops Island, Va., in June 2021 and July 2020, respectively, and NROL-66 from Vandenberg in February 2011.
In addition to the NRO launches, the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at Kirtland AFB, N.M., test flew a Minotaur carrying an unarmed Mk21A reentry vehicle by Lockheed Martin [LMT] for the Sentinel ICBM program last June 18 from Vandenberg.
NROL-174 is part of the NRO/SSC Rocket Systems Launch Program, which “focuses on the small launch market and primarily launches more risk-tolerant experimental, research and development, responsive space, and operational missions,” NRO has said.
“NROL-174 is the third NRO mission launched from SSC RSLP’s Orbital/Suborbital Program-3 contract,” the agency said.