SpaceX launches NRO’s expanding satellite constellation on NROL-172

SpaceX launched the NROL-172 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office from Vandenberg on a Falcon 9, with booster B1097 landing on the drone ship ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ about 8.5 minutes after liftoff. The NRO’s proliferated architecture uses hundreds of satellites—electro-optical, radar, and relay satellites—to boost revisit rates, coverage, and resilience, including inter-satellite optical communications as part of a future space-data network. The mission is part of the National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1 program, following earlier NROL flights (e.g., 145, 48, 105) and some procurements outside NSSL.