Falcon Heavy to Launch First NRO Spy Satellite Tonight in SpaceX Triple-Launch Day

SpaceX is targeting three separate orbital launches in a single day on Thursday, October 1 — a schedule set to climax late tonight with the first-ever classified National Reconnaissance Office mission aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket, according to the NRO and spaceflight trackers.

The NROL-97 mission is scheduled to lift off at 11:53 p.m. Eastern time from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with a backup opportunity on Friday night, according to SpaceX’s launch manifest. The payload is a classified satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office, launched in partnership with the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command — and the agency has not disclosed its nature, per standard practice for spy satellites.

It will be the first NRO payload carried by a Falcon Heavy, SpaceX’s most powerful operational rocket, according to Tech Times. The step up from the Falcon 9 — which has flown every NRO mission since 2017 — suggests a large spacecraft bound for a demanding high-energy orbit: Falcon Heavy can haul roughly 63,800 kg to low Earth orbit, more than triple the Falcon 9’s capacity, according to the same report. The mission also opens the operational era of the NSSL Phase 3 Lane 2 contract, a $13.7 billion framework covering America’s highest-priority national security launches through fiscal year 2029.

The NRO’s mission page notes the NROL-97 patch is a tribute to September 11, 2001, honoring the 25th anniversary, with four stars for the four aircraft lost. The two side boosters are expected to return for simultaneous landings at Landing Zones 1 and 2 at Cape Canaveral, while the center core will be expended, per SpaceX’s manifest.

The late-night national security launch caps a busy day for SpaceX: the company’s Falcon 9 launched NASA’s Crew-13 astronauts toward the International Space Station in the morning, and a Transporter-18 rideshare mission carrying 130 payloads lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in the afternoon, according to NASASpaceFlight.

Sources:

• National Reconnaissance Office — Launch NROL-97
• NASASpaceFlight — Launch Preview: Crew-13, Transporter-18 and NROL-97
• Tech Times — Falcon Heavy Launches First NRO Spy Satellite