The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), in partnership with U.S. Space Force Space Launch Delta 30 and SpaceX, successfully launched the NROL-48 mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex-4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on September 22, 2025, at 1:38 p.m. EDT.
This mission is the eleventh overall launch of the NRO’s proliferated architecture and fifth proliferated launch of 2025. Having hundreds of NRO satellites on orbit is vital to the nation and partners. This constellation continues to add capability and resilience to the mission through shorter revisit times, increased observational persistence, and faster processing and transmission of data, according to the agency.
Over the past two years, NRO has launched more than 200 satellites, and nine NRO missions have been launched so far in 2025. Additional proliferated launches are planned through 2029.
Source: NRO
Like IC News? Then please consider subscribing. You’ll get full access to our searchable library of 10,000+ articles, plus new articles each weekday.
By 
