A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launched a classified U.S. spy satellite from Florida on Thursday night, marking the heavy-lift vehicle’s first flight for the National Reconnaissance Office and kicking off a multi-billion-dollar national security contract.
The midnight liftoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida carried the codenamed NROL-97 mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. Blasting off at 11:54 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A on a northeasterly trajectory, the flight was the third liftoff for SpaceX in a span of less than 13 hours.
The tripleheader marking the first time the company has landed four boosters in a single day.
NROL-97 Opens the National Security Launch Era
The flight was the first NRO mission to fly after being procured through the competitive National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 2 contract, which covers approximately 54 missions between fiscal year 2025 and fiscal year 2029 with a total value of roughly $13.7 billion.
Since NROL-76 lifted off on a Falcon 9 in May 2017, SpaceX had flown 22 consecutive National Reconnaissance Office missions on the smaller vehicle, building agency trust through a steady cadence that included NROL-108 in December 2020 and Phase 2 missions like NROL-69 and NROL-77 in 2025. NROL-97 broke that streak because of raw capability requirements.
While the workhorse Falcon 9 can haul roughly 22,800 kg to low Earth orbit, the Falcon Heavy more than triples that capacity to 63,800 kg. That performance advantage is even more pronounced on the high-energy trajectories that classified satellites often require.
Booster Recovery and Sonic Booms Across Central Florida
Since its inaugural launch in February 2018, the heavy lifter has completed 14 missions, each of which achieved success. The rocket consists of three modified, strapped-together first stages of the Falcon 9, featuring two standard Falcon 9 cores serving as side boosters flanking a structurally reinforced center core.
For this operation, SpaceX brought Landing Zone 1 back into use, following a period where LZ-40 at Space Launch Complex 40 had served as its replacement.
The Falcon Heavy core stage, serial number B1106, was brand new and was expended on this mission, leaving its central booster unrecovered.
Mission Emblem Honors the 25th Anniversary of 9/11
As standard practice for classified national security launches, the NRO has never disclosed the nature of the NROL-97 payload, and SpaceX did not reveal what orbit the Falcon Heavy targeted.
“The lighthouse characterizes enduring strength and the ability to provide information to those in need, even in difficult times,”
NRO officials wrote in a description of the patch.
The emblem’s light beam endpoints align to the 9 and 11 positions on a clock face in honor of the 25th anniversary of 9/11. The patch also bears the Latin motto Orbem mundi mutandum conservare,
translating to to preserve a changing world
or to preserve the world by transforming it.
The payload fairing used for the mission was previously flown on the NROL-95 mission in July.
The company also launched the 14th test flight of its next-gen Starship megarocket on Monday, meaning all three of the company’s currently-flying rockets lifted off within a three-day span.
A backup window remained available the following night had the Thursday attempt been scrubbed.
