**SpaceX Conducts Its 100th Falcon 9 Launch of 2024 for NROL-167 Mission**

In a significant milestone for space exploration and national security, SpaceX successfully launched its 100th Falcon 9 rocket of 2024 on October 24 from Vandenberg Space Force Base's Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E). The mission, dubbed NROL-167, was the company's fourth mission of the year for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and added an unspecified number of satellites to the NRO's growing constellation.

The launch took place at 10:13 a.m. PDT (1:13 p.m. EDT, 1713 UTC) and was aimed at enhancing the NRO's proliferated architecture. This constellation, believed to include Starshield satellites manufactured by SpaceX in collaboration with Northrop Grumman, aims to increase the speed and resilience of intelligence data delivery. Statements from the NRO indicate that the new system will diversify communication pathways and reduce single points of failure, thereby providing more reliable and timely data to analysts, warfighters, and civil agencies.

This launch was marked by the notable use of a Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail number B1063. This booster has an impressive history, having previously supported two other national security missions (NROL-113 and SDA-0B), NASA's DART mission, and 14 Starlink flights. After this 21st launch, the booster successfully landed on the droneship "Of Course I Still Love You," marking the 105th booster landing for the droneship and the 358th overall landing for SpaceX.

The NROL-167 mission is part of an ambitious schedule by the NRO, which plans approximately nine additional launches in 2024 and more extending through 2028. Chris Scolese, the first Senate-approved director of the NRO, highlighted the agency's rapid progress during a talk at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on October 3. Scolese mentioned that by December of this year, the NRO would have launched nearly 100 satellites since June, transitioning from a demonstration phase to more operational capabilities.

Scolese also outlined the security benefits of having a large satellite constellation, noting that it complicates potential anti-satellite weapon threats from adversaries like Russia and China. "If you have 100 satellites up there, you have to have at least 100 missiles in order to take them down," he said, emphasizing the advantages of resilience and redundancy.

Despite the high-profile nature of these launches, many details about the satellites remain classified. Astronomer Jonathan McDowell, however, noted that the third NRO-related launch (NROL-113) featured around 21 satellites. Based on this estimate, if each of the previous NRO missions carried a similar number, there could be approximately 63 satellites in the constellation so far.

The NROL-167 mission demonstrates a robust collaboration between SpaceX, the NRO, and other industry partners like Northrop Grumman. This effort aims to ensure that the United States maintains a technological edge in space-based intelligence and national security capabilities.