The National Reconnaissance Office is preparing to launch its eighth batch of satellites to support its proliferated architecture constellation. The mission includes a number of notable milestones for the Falcon 9 rocket program, including a record-fast turnaround time for its booster.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will carry an unspecified number of satellites that are believed to be Starshield, a government variant of the Starlink satellites that are built by SpaceX in partnership with Northrop Grumman. This will be SpaceX’s 450th Falcon 9 launch to date.
Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base is set for March 20 at 11:49 p.m. PDT (2:49 a.m. EDT, 0649 UTC) on March 21). This will be the second launch this year supporting the architecture, following NROL-153 in January.
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about 30 minutes prior to liftoff.
SpaceX will use the Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail number B1088. This will be its fourth launch after previously supporting the flights of NROL-126, a combination of Starlink and Starshield satellites; the Transporter-12 smallsat ride-share mission, which included 131 satellites and NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH ride-share mission.
The last of those lifted off on March 12, just nine days before the planned launch of NROL-57 on Thursday night. If the launch moves forward, it would handily beat the current record for turnaround of a Falcon 9 first stage booster, which currently belongs to B1080 at 13.5 days.
A little more than 7.5 minutes after liftoff, B1088 will target a landing back at Landing Zone 4. If successful, this will be the 26th booster landing at LZ-4 and the 421st booster landing to date.
Neither SpaceX nor the NRO specify how many satellites are onboard each of these proliferated architecture flights. The NRO stated that its goal is to have “hundreds of small satellites” in low Earth orbit to support this constellation.
“The NRO continues to build and fortify the largest government constellation in history, with proliferated launches continuing through 2029,” the NRO said in a statement. “Having hundreds of NRO satellites on orbit is invaluable to our nation and our partners. They will provide greater revisit rates, increasing coverage, faster delivery of information, and ultimately help us to more quickly deliver what our customers need.”
An NRO spokesperson said the agency has about a dozen launches on its 2025 manifest, about half of those supporting the proliferated architecture constellation. In a launch press kit, the NRO listed three more of the proliferated architecture launches set for this year. Those are NROL-192, NROL-48 and NROL-145.
Dates for these missions will be announced closer to their respective launch times.
