SpaceX is preparing to carry out a new mission on behalf of American intelligence, in this case for the NRO (National Reconnaissance Office). This federal agency is in charge of manufacturing and managing US government spy satellites.
While Amazon has just signed a record contract with three aerospace giants, namely ULA, Arianespace and BlueOrigin, its main competitor SpaceX continues to go about its business. Between missions for NASA and regular launches of satellites into orbit on behalf of Starlink, it also happens that SpaceX also works for other state agencies.
Elon Musk’s company, for example, has collaborated on several occasions with the NRO (National Recognition Office). This institution is part of the closed group US intelligence services, alongside the FBI, the CIA or even the NSA and the DEA. Directly attached to the Pentagon, its main mission is to develop and manage the fleet of spy satellites of the US government.
However, SpaceX has just formalized a new launch on behalf of the NRO. Scheduled for April 16, 2022 and codenamed NROL-85, the Falcon 9 rocket which will carry two mystery machines will depart from the launch site in Vandenberg, California. As you can imagine, both SpaceX and the NRO have been particularly stingy with detail.
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SpaceX carries out a Secret Defense mission for the United States
For its part, the aerospace company was satisfied with describe the different stages of the launch such as flight profile, deployment and other key mission milestones such as 1st and 2nd stage separation or fairing deployment for example. No information, however, on the contents of the rocket. But given the powers of the NRO, chances are they are spy satellites.
According to several specialists, it would be two latest generation spy satellites, the Intruder 13A and 13B. The launch of these two machines would be planned as part of the Intruder program, a naval system for monitoring the oceans by satellite. The purpose of the satellites is to pick up radio signals emitted by warships belonging to potentially hostile countries, such as Russia, Iran or China.
Additionally, these satellites can triangulate the position of enemy ships. To do this, they are systematically sent in groups of two or three, in order to position themselves at different places in low Earth orbit (between 1000 and 1100 kilometers in altitude). Note that Space already has a new mission planned for the NRO (code name NROL-69), scheduled for Q3 2023.
