SpaceX has launched its fourth mission this year for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), transporting satellites believed to be part of its “proliferated architecture,” likely including Starshield satellites.
“Congrats SpaceX team on the 100th successful launch this year,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on X.
This mission marked the 21st flight for the first stage booster, which had previously launched NROL-113, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, DART, Transporter-7, Iridium OneWeb, SDA-0B, and 14 Starlink missions.
SpaceX’s 100th Falcon 9 launch of 2024 took place Thursday morning, including the Starlink 9-3 mission failure in July when an upper stage issue led to a loss of orbit for the satellites.
This mission marked the 21st launch of the Falcon 9 first stage booster, B1063, in the SpaceX fleet, with previous missions including two national security flights (NROL-113 and SDA-0B), NASA’s DART, and 14 Starlink missions.
The NROL-167 launch marked the fourth mission backing the NRO’s “proliferated architecture,” a network described by the agency as comprising “numerous, smaller satellites designed for capability and resilience.”
Following the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket, the NRO announced, “This mission is the fourth launch of the NRO’s proliferated architecture and signifies the NRO’s increased launch frequency and delivery on orbit for this program. Today’s successful mission follows last month’s NROL-113 launch on Sept. 5, and continues NRO’s deployment of the U.S. government’s largest satellite constellation in history.”
It is worth noting that the Guinness World Record for the most launches in a year belongs to the Soviet Union, now Russia. Conversely, SpaceX holds a world record for the highest number of launches (91) with a single rocket (Falcon 9) in one calendar year, set between 3 January and 29 December 2023.
You can watch the launch from this link.
SpaceX has successfully launched and landed Starship, the spacecraft intended to transport humans throughout the solar system in the future.