The launch marks the seventh deployment in the NRO’s new “proliferated architecture” strategy, which emphasizes smaller, distributed satellite networks

SpaceX crews are preparing for the 7th test launch of its Starship mega rocket. The world’s biggest rocket could launch again from SpaceX’s Starbase in Texas at 5 p.m. on Monday. SpaceX said Starship 7 is a “new generation” of its spacecraft that will test significant upgrades.

SpaceX’s most ambitious Starship flight yet will see reused hardware, the deployment of 10 fake satellites and another attempt to catch the booster with “chopsticks”

Coming off a record-setting 2024, SpaceX continued an aggressive launching schedule with the liftoff Wednesday morning of a Falcon 9 rocket that carried 21 Starlink satellites into lower-Earth orbit.