NASA’s SpaceX carrying NROL-76, a classified military satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is reported to be the fifth of its successful mission this year. However, the spacecraft is set to go for more missions.
According to Tech Crunch, SpaceX that carries a top-secret satellite successfully took off LC-39A at 7:15 AM EDT just as planned. The spacecraft then landed back safe at LZ-1, SpaceX’s landing pad at Cape Canaveral. The flight was mentioned to be the rocket’s first mission for the Department of Defense and its 34th mission overall.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk then noted that the flight successfully landed amid close call due to the load, high altitude, and wind velocity. It was mentioned that the SpaceX Falcon rocket was carrying a classified spy satellite for the NRO, an agency within the Defense Department. The first planned takeoff last April 30 was identified to be canceled due to a sensor issue.
Furthermore, the launching doesn’t stop as the SpaceX was unveiled to have another mission regarding a Bulgarian communications satellite from the Kennedy Space Center per Florida Today. The BulgariaSat-1 satellite is said to atop the Falcon booster from California. In which, has its flyby target identified to be next month.
With that said, the SpaceX is set to launch its Falcon rocket once more but this time with 4,425 super-fast internet satellites aboard it. The proposal for the mission was stated to be announced by Elon Musk last 2015. A prototype launch is mentioned to be conducted in the "early months" of 2018 as reported by CNBC.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with Musk’s satellite full campaign is explained by Patricia Cooper, SpaceX's vice president of satellite government affairs to be launched in 2019. It is also identified that the 4,425 satellites would operate in 83 orbital planes at altitudes ranging from 1,110 KM to 1,325 KM. Cooper then concluded that the remaining satellites would be launched in phases throughout 2024.