The National Reconnaissance Office successfully launched the NROL-97 mission on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on 1 October 2026.
Liftoff occurred at 11:54 p.m. ET from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center. This was the NRO’s first flight on Falcon Heavy after 22 previous missions on Falcon 9. The two side boosters landed at Landing Zones 1 and 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station; the center core was expended.
The mission used previously flown hardware, including side boosters that had launched NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on 30 August and payload fairings from an earlier NROL-95 flight. NROL-97 was the first national security payload under an NSSL Phase 3 Lane 2 contract.
NROL-97 was SpaceX’s third Falcon launch of the day, following Crew-13 and the Transporter-18 rideshare mission.
Source: National Reconnaissance Office announcement and SpaceX.
