The National Intelligence Agency is preparing to launch the first stage of the new satellite group created by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman. The agency plans to launch the mission, called NROL-146, on May 19 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, NRO deputy principal director Troy Meink said May 1.

Speaking at a hearing of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, Meink said this will be the first operational launch of the new distributed NRO architecture.

“We have already run a number of demos over the last few years to test cost and performance to make sure we are really comfortable and know what we are doing,” Meinck said.

The agency has not disclosed how many satellites will be launched as part of this upcoming mission or the projected size of the new constellation. Meink has previously said six launches are planned for NRO’s future joint small satellite architecture in 2024.

NRO to ‘quadruple’ its orbiting satellites

NRO aims to quadruple the number of spacecraft in orbit, agency officials said. This expansion, combined with new technology in satellites, is expected to provide a tenfold increase in the agency’s intelligence collection. Smaller and more numerous satellites will enable much more frequent imaging of critical areas of interest, allowing critical intelligence to be delivered more quickly.

“Space exploration has become the primary, if not the primary, means of collecting in confined spaces,” Meinck said at the hearing.

The satellites were built under a secret $1.8 billion contract that NRO signed with SpaceX and Northrop Grumman in 2021, Reuters first reported in March.