The National Zonn’s Office, which manages the US Army’s detective satellites, planned its fifth mission of about a dozen for the year.
The NROL-69 dubbed flight, raised on an unknown orbital location on a spacex Falcon 9 rocket. The Space Launch Complex at Cape Canveral Space Force Station launched from 40 to 1:48 am at EDT (1748 UTC).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-_90o1klkm
The 45th weather squadron located on the Patrick Space Force Base, estimating 90 percent of the weather -friendly weather for lift on Monday. In its perspective, meteorologists said that the primary clock item would be the presence of thick clouds.
Weather officials wrote, “The middle and high clouds associated with the upper-level jet will streaming throughout the region on Monday, as well as with additional clouds from the system arriving,” by the launch Weather officials wrote. “Most of this deck still looks too much and cool to worry about a thick cloud layers, but there is little possibility of endangering low clouds and the launch window.”
SpaceX used Falcon 9 First Stage Booster with tail number B1092 for this mission. This was its second flight after the Starlink 12–13 flight started on 27 February 2025.
About 8.5 minutes after the liftoff, B1092 returned to a landing in Landing Zone 1, greeting people around the space coast of Florida with a sonic boom. Landing has a 50th touchdown on LZ-1 and the total 422nd booster landing till date.
Step 2 begins
In August 2020, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance was awarded contracts of $ 3.3 billion and $ 3.4 billion respectively as part of Phase 2 of the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program.
The contract values were designed in May 2019 when a total of 34 missions were estimated to be the US Space Force’s Space System Command, which oversees the awards and execution of these contracts. By the end of the fifth and final order year (FY24), assigning these missions was a total of 50 and the contract price was adjusted by $ 4.5 billion for ULA and $ 4 billion for SpaceX.
In 50 missions given to SpaceX and Ula, nine come from NROs. Ula will launch seven of them and SpaceX will launch two of them.
The NROL-69 was one of the two missions, which SpaceX was assigned to the final part of the second year work orders, which were issued in March 2021. At that time, the firm-Fixed-Price contract for both NROL-69 and USSF-36 was about $ 159.7 million.
Originally, USSF-36 was scheduled to launch in the second quarter of FY23, with NROL-69 to launch in the fourth quarter of FY23. The causes of these launch delays have not been revealed.
With some exceptions, NRO does not provide details about its various missions, including final classes, payloads and operational lifesies. In a pre-launch press kit, the agency had a brief line on what would happen when the Falcon 9 rocket is launched on Monday.
“This mission bears a national security payload designed, manufactured and operated by NRO,” NRO wrote.
Notice to aviants and mericars indicates that the rocket will carry a northeast trajectory, possibly targeting an initial orbit with a tilt of about 53 degrees. Falcon 9 rocket itself provides another possible signal about the mission. The second phase of the Falcon 9 rocket is wrapped around it.
The band is typically used on a Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy rocket, which helps to place RP -1 kerosene (propellent of rocket) at a consistent temperature especially during long coast steps.
An example of this was the June 2024 Falcan heavy launch of the Goe-U Satellite for national ocean and atmospheric administration, with a third burning of the upper phase over 4 hours and the third of the Marlin vacuum engine over 4 hours in the upper phase, deployed 4.5 hours after the payload.
The most recent use of this protective layer came during the launch of Transporter -13 Smallsat Rideshare Mission, which was first launched in March.
SpaceX often does not discuss this gray strip, but during the launch of the Jupiter -3 mission on a Falcon Heavy rocket, during July 28, 2023, it was briefly brought by Ronnie Foreman, a SpaceX commercial sales manager. According to Forton, the mission started a new medium-creating configuration.
“Our second stages have three common configurations: standard, medium and long coast. And we use different configurations, depending on how long the second phase needs to be operated after the launch,” Foreman explained. “A medium-creating kit, which we are using today, provides better performance for some missions and includes an additional battery loaf or power pack, a painted gray strip and other hardware outside the fuel tank to ensure that fuel and stage systems work for a long time, once we reach space.
“While in space, the paint will absorb heat from the sun to keep the second -stage fuel warm for our long flight today.”
Like the GOE -U mission, the Jupiter -3 satellite had three burn of the upper stage engine before deploying the satellite.
