The US has a classified satellite. Officials announced that the National Reconnaissance Office was successfully launched into space on Sunday morning using a reusable SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
At 6:13 a.m., the NROL-85 satellite was launched into orbit. From the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, it’s local time. The NRO claimed in a statement that Sunday’s launch was the first time it had reused a rocket booster that had previously been flown into space.
The NROL-85 satellite, the NRO’s second with SpaceX this year, was only described as a crucial national security payload by the NRO.
Elon Musk’s aerospace company, Spacex, claims to have launched 147 Falcon-9 rockets, 107 of which have landed. A total of 87 rockets have been re-launched, including the first rocket to be launched twice in 2017.
The first stage of the Falcon returned to earth and landed at a beach location northwest of Los Angeles.
The launch was one of three that the Air Force ordered from SpaceX in 2019 for a total of $297 million in fixed costs.
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is the government agency in charge of developing and launching American satellites that deliver intelligence data to lawmakers, intelligence agencies, and the Defense Department.
