SpaceX launches secret US spy satellite from Florida (video)
SpaceX launched a secret reconnaissance mission for the U.S. government early on Thursday morning (July 30).
A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday, kicking off the mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) called NROL-95.
The launch occurred at 3:10 a.m. EDT (0710 GMT).
We know very little about NROL-95; the NRO, which operates the country’s fleet of spy satellites, has provided no details about the payload or its activities.
The agency has revealed the NROL-95 mission patch. It depicts a snarling ferret with a nighttime sky in the background and the words “We are the Champions” on the emblem’s lower border.
“The ferret, a clever creature, embodies agility and resilience — key traits for exploration. Its confident grin and bright eyes reflect a spirit of victory in a realm where determination meets adventure,” NRO officials said in an NROL-95 mission description.
“The bold phrase ‘We are the Champions’ encapsulates the camaraderie and pride shared among those on this purposeful mission,” they added.
NROL-95 was the fourth NRO launch of 2026. The other three — NROL-105 in January, NROL-172 in May and NROL-179 in June — also flew aboard Falcon 9s, but from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Those three other missions were devoted to building out the NRO’s “proliferated architecture” constellation, which will consist of hundreds of relatively small, cost-efficient reconnaissance satellites in Earth orbit.
On Thursday, the Falcon 9’s first stage came back to Earth for a landing at Cape Canaveral about 8.5 minutes after liftoff. It was the seventh mission for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description.
SpaceX cut off its livestream shortly thereafter, at the request of the agency.
