SpaceX is targeting Friday morning for NROL-179, its third 2026 flight supporting the National Reconnaissance Office’s proliferated architecture constellation of intelligence satellites believed to be Starshield variants. The booster on its third flight will attempt a landing at Vandenberg’s Landing Zone 4.
Neither the NRO nor SpaceX has confirmed on the record that these are government-modified versions of the Starlink design.
Those relay satellites also support inter-satellite optical links that form part of both the NRO’s resilient communications network and the Department of War’s planned Space-Data Network.
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