SpaceX is ready to launch one other set of U.S. spy satellites tonight (June 28).A Falcon 9 rocket carrying payloads for the Nationwide Reconnaissance Workplace (NRO) is scheduled to raise off from California’s Vandenberg Area Drive Base throughout a two-hour window that opens at 11:14 p.m. EDT (8:14 p.m. native California time; 0314 GMT on June 29).SpaceX will webcast the launch through its X account starting about 10 minutes previous to liftoff. Nonetheless, the corporate could finish the stream comparatively early on the request of the NRO, which builds and operates the US’ fleet of spy satellites.If all goes in response to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will come again to Earth about 8 minutes after liftoff tonight, touchdown on the drone ship Of Course I Nonetheless Love You, which might be stationed within the Pacific Ocean. It is going to be the eighth launch and touchdown for this explicit booster, in response to a SpaceX mission description.Tonight’s mission, which the NRO calls NROL-186, would be the second devoted to constructing out the company’s new “proliferated structure.”This community will encompass “quite a few, smaller satellites designed for functionality and resilience,” the NRO wrote in an NROL-186 mission description. That is a departure from the standard U.S. spysat technique, which is determined by huge, extremely succesful spacecraft which are costly and time-consuming to develop and construct.We do not know precisely what the NROL-186 satellites might be doing, or what they’re able to; the NRO releases few particulars about its spacecraft and their actions.Breaking area information, the newest updates on rocket launches, skywatching occasions and extra!Associated: SpaceX launches next-gen US spy satellites and sticks the touchdown (video)SpaceX additionally launched the primary “proliferated structure” batch, on the NROL-146 mission, which lifted off atop a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg on Might 22 of this 12 months.Tonight’s launch would be the 66th Falcon 9 mission of the 12 months already. Forty-seven of the rocket’s 65 launches in 2024 have been devoted to constructing out SpaceX’s Starlink broadband megaconstellation in low Earth orbit.