CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, FL – A clandestine spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) took flight in an absolutely delightful dead of night early Wednesday, July 30 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Florida’s Space Coast.
Liftoff of the clandestine NROL-95 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) took place early Thursday, July 30 at 3:10 a.m. ET, on a Falcon 9 launched from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The veteran Falcon 9 booster dramatically nailed the touchdown back at the Cape some eight minutes later accompanied by extremely loud sonic booms resembling explosions
Enjoy our launch and landing photos taken by the team of Ken Kremer and Jean Wright for Space UpClose
My lead image shows a timelapse streak to orbit and subsequent landing in a single exposure – using the wide angle fisheye lens essential to capture both events nearly 180 degrees apart.
“The collaboration between NRO, U.S. Space Force, and SSC continues to advance our nation’s intelligence architecture through next-generation satellite technology and integrated operations,” said Col. Kathryn Cantu, director, NRO Office of Space Launch, and NROL-95 mission director, in a statement.
“This collaboration enables us to swiftly field resilient intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems while preserving the flexibility and persistence required to counter evolving challenges.”
The rockets bright flames spewing from 9 Merlin 1-D engines and 1.7 million pounds of liftoff thrust vividly illuminated the clouds as it roared by on the path to un unknown orbit on a top secret task – captured in my streak shot image.
Note media cars and photogs in the foreground at our media viewing site.
As customary absolutely nothing is known about the top secret satellite payload or its goals and capabilities for the NRO – other than that it supports US National Security
Following stage separation, the veteran Falcon 9 first stage B1096.7 soft landed on Landing Zone 2 (LZ-2) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station – sending multiple sonic booms shrieking across the Space Coast and far beyond into central Florida as reported by numerous spectators – as well as those shockingly woken up who had no idea of what was happening.
Blastoff occurred under mostly cloudy skies as we watched from on site at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida less than 3 miles from pad 40 and roughly 5 miles from the LC-2 landing site.
Luckily the overhead clouds had dissipated sufficiently in just the right spots to offer a mostly clear view of the rocket ascending followed by stage separation and touchdown.
Falcon 9 NROL-95 mission roared off pad 40 on a northeasterly trajectory
This was NRO’s 4th mission of 2026 and 2nd this year in partnership with @USSF_SSC, or US Space and Missile Command
This was the seventh flight for the first stage booster B1096.7 supporting this mission, which previously launched KF-01, IMAP, NROL-77, GPS III-9, CRS-34, and one Starlink mission.
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