With a wall- and window-rattling return, a Falcon 9 first-stage landing at Vandenberg Space Force Base on Friday marked the West Coast’s third consecutive touchdown of 2026 as the rocket provided a thrill for viewers en route to placing spy satellites in orbit.
The two-stage rocket manufactured by SpaceX blasted off at 8:39 p.m. from Space Launch Complex-4 as spectators at a Vandenberg Village viewing site exclaimed “Oh, wow” and “Oh my gosh.”
More than seven minutes later, the rocket’s first-stage booster wrapped up its second mission by successfully returning to Vandenberg, landing at the former Space Launch Complex-4 West site, previously used for Titan II rocket liftoffs, and now known as Landing Zone 4.
Along with the traditional rumble of the rocket’s liftoff, the mission generated sonic booms heard around parts of the Central Coast as the first-stage booster returned to Santa Barbara County.
The rocket carried the National Reconnaissance Office payload dubbed NRO:-105, as the spy satellite agency continues to add to its constellation of small craft under an approach known as the proliferated architecture.
“To stay ahead of the competition and ensure it can continue to operate in a heightened threat environment, the NRO is modernizing its architecture in space and on the ground – delivering more capability faster with increased resilience,” according to NRO. “A greater number of satellites – large and small, government and commercial, in multiple orbits – will deliver an order of magnitude more signals and images than is available today.”
NRO historically launched one large spacecraft that took years to design and build before it could be launched to collect intelligence, conduct surveillance or perform reconnaissance.
“This mission is NRO’s 12th overall proliferated architecture launch and first of 2026,” NRO said on social media.
At the request of NRO, the launch livestream ended after the first-stage booster’s landing and didn’t include images of the second stage or payload.
The agency remained mum about the payload including the number of craft on board and other details including confirmation of deployment.
By the end of 2025, the NRO’s fleet in space grew to more than 200 satellites.
The proliferated architecture launches will continue through 2029, adding to what the agency calls the largest and most capable government constellation.
The next launch for SpaceX at Vandenberg will be a Falcon rocket carrying 25 Starlink satellites into orbit. That liftoff currently is targeting 6:43 to 10:43 p.m. Wednesday with landing planned for the droneship positioned in the Pacific Ocean.