SpaceX launched a batch of spy satellites for the U.S. government this evening (May 11) from California’s foggy central coast.
A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base today at 10:13 p.m. EDT (7:13 p.m. local time; 0213 GMT on May 12), on a mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) called NROL-172.
NROL-172 was the 13th launch devoted to building out a new reconnaissance network that the NRO, which operates the United States’ fleet of spy satellites, calls its “proliferated architecture.”
