Launch Photos: Secret Spy Satellite NROL-61 Blasts Off On Atlas V Rocket

News
By published

At the Pad

United Launch Alliance

The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the classified NROL-61 satellite is rolled from the Vertical Integration Facility to the pad at Space Launch Complex-41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Click here for launch video and our wrap story.

Up Close and Personal

United Launch Alliance/Ben Cooper

If you could get up close and personal with an Atlas V rocket, here's the view you'd see. The Atlas V rocket launched on July 28 was a 421 series variant. It stands nearly 107 feet tall. Click here for launch video and our wrap story.

Meet Spike

United Launch Alliance

The mission logo for the classified NROL-61 satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office atop an Atlas V rocket on July 28, 2016. The United Launch Alliance launched the mission from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Click here for launch video and our wrap story.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

Tariq Malik
Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the award-winning Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001. He covers human spaceflight, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. He's a recipient of the 2022 Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting and the 2025 Space Pioneer Award from the National Space Society. He is an Eagle Scout and Space Camp alum with journalism degrees from the USC and NYU. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.