NROL-149 mission successfully launched from Vandenberg SFB early Tuesday morning

VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif. – Early Tuesday, the National Reconnaissance Office successfully launched the NROL-149 mission aboard a Falcon 9 from Space Launch Complex-4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base.

According to the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), this mission is the sixth launch of its proliferated space-based architecture and the eighth and final NRO launch for the year.

From June of 2023 to December of 2024, ten missions have been successfully launched by the federal agency and more than 100 payloads have entered orbit detailed the NRO in a press release Tuesday.

After first-stage separation, the reusable Falcon 9 booster assigned to this mission returned to land on the Of Course I Still Love You drone ship awaiting in the Pacific Ocean.

The image below, courtesy of SpaceX, shows the process of delivery and return the Falcon 9 performed during the launch sequence.

The image below shows a side-by-side shot of both the booster's approach and the awaiting Of Course I Still Love You drone ship during Tuesday's launch, courtesy of SpaceX.

This was the 22nd flight for the Falcon 9 which previously supported the following missions: Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, DART, SDA-0B, Iridium OneWeb, Transporter-7, NROL-113, NROL-167, and 14 Starlink missions.