The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) launched its ninth mission to support its satellite constellation with an extended architecture using SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. The NROL-192 mission took place early Saturday morning from the Western Range. The first stage of the launch vehicle, serial number B1071, completed its 24th launch and landed on the autonomous ship Of Course I Still Love You eight minutes after liftoff. This was the 430th landing of a Falcon 9's first stage.
NRO Director Chris Scolese noted that this group is "the most effective, resilient, and technologically advanced in the world." The constellation consists of Starshield satellites, the government variant of SpaceX's Starlink. Scolese added: "The most important thing is we complicate our adversaries' ability to hide information while simultaneously reducing the time it takes for us to get that information from minutes to seconds." In the last eight missions, SpaceX has launched more than 150 satellites on behalf of NRO.