Last year, SpaceX marked 2026 with a successful launch of a Falcon 9 that caused the deployment of U.S. intelligence satellites of the utmost level of secrecy at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California 23:39 EST January 16. 

The NROL-105 mission will be the first national-security liftoff of the year, and will move forward the constellation architecture proliferation of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). 

Mission Breakdown  

It was the 12th deployment launch of its year that launched about 20 small, sturdy StarShield satellites into low earth orbit with an altitude of about 425x310km and an inclination of 69.7 degrees. 

It is the 12th flight in a series of 11th flights that have been made since May 2024 adding over 200 units to the constellation. 

The Starlink 6-98 mission added another 29 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites to the low Earth orbit constellation. This was SpaceX’s fourth Starlink mission of 2026 and its sixth Falcon 9 rocket launch of the year. 

Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX Vice President of Launch, wrote on social media after the Starlink 6-90 launch:

“The rocket was actually ready to fly at roughly 40 hours, but we needed to wait for the optimal deployment t-zero. Love seeing us continue to improve on our speed, efficiency, safety and reliability.”

Strategic Edge  

The proliferated architecture replaces megaconstellation satellites with swarms under coordination, which decreases the revisit time, improves persistence and helps to reduce risk with low-cost commercial technology. 

The military press release signaled that NRO bore hundreds of satellites in orbit, which enabled resilience and expedited the delivery of data by indicating that the constellation has already provided more than 160,000 images. 

What’s Next ?

It is estimated that a dozen other NRO operations will be deployed in 2026 to combine the proliferated and conventional systems to provide the unmatched agility in the ISR in the face of the escalating space rivalry. 

This continuous rhythm makes the U.S. intelligence capabilities on the frontline, making quantity a resolute operation edge.