Statement from the National Reconnaissance Office
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), in partnership with U.S. Space Force Space Launch Delta 30 and SpaceX, successfully launched the NROL-149 mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex-4 East at Vandenberg SpaceForce Base in California on Dec. 17, 2024, at 8:19 a.m. EST.
This mission is the sixth launch of the NRO’s proliferated architecture, and eighth successful NRO launch of 2024. NROL-149 follows NROL-126 launched on Nov. 30, and marks NRO’s last scheduled launch of the year.
NRO celebrates the completion of an especially dynamic 18-month period, beginning with NROL-68 in June 2023 and ending now in December 2024 with NROL-149. During this period, 10 missions have launched, successfully delivering more than 100 payloads on orbit.
For more than 60 years, the NRO has successfully met the needs of its U.S. intelligence, military, civil, and allied partners. It remains the world’s leader in unique intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems. The NRO’s next-generation systems will help ensure that the right data is delivered to the right user at the right time, faster than ever before.
In 2024, six launches supporting the NRO’s proliferated architecture were successfully completed, with additional launches anticipated through 2024