The mission carried multiple national security payloads and was conducted through the Rocket Systems Launch Program (RSLP), which supports small, responsive, and risk-tolerant space missions. “This launch is a testament to what the national security launch enterprise is able to achieve,” said Laura Robinson, Deputy Director of the NRO Office of Space Launch and NROL-174 Mission Director.
The Minotaur IV rocket used for the mission was originally a Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), repurposed for space launch. “Now modified for space launch, it completed its final mission of placing a national security payload on orbit,” Robinson noted, crediting the decades of work in transforming the missile into a space vehicle.
NROL-174 represents the third NRO mission launched under SSC RSLP’s Orbital/Suborbital Program-3 contract. Previous Minotaur launches under this programme include NROL-129 in July 2020 and NROL-111 in June 2021, both from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
Lt. Col. Steve Hendershot, SSC’s Materiel Leader for RSLP, praised the mission’s success, saying: “Superb launch. This was our third Minotaur launch for the NRO since July 2020 and just like then, this mission was textbook… truly outstanding.”
Over the past two years, the NRO has launched over 150 satellites, creating the largest and most capable government satellite constellation in U.S. history. With around a dozen more launches scheduled for 2025, the agency is continuing to expand its global surveillance and intelligence capabilities.
For more than six decades, the NRO has provided critical support to U.S. intelligence, military, civil, and allied operations. Its next-generation systems aim to deliver essential data to users faster and more accurately than ever before.
Source: National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).
