SpaceX launching secret US spy satellite early on July 30: Watch it live

a black and white rocket launches into a dark night sky — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches the NROL-105 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Jan. 16, 2026. (Image credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX plans to launch a secret reconnaissance mission for the U.S. government early on Thursday morning (July 30), and you can watch the action live.

A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday, kicking off a mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) called NROL-95.

The 44-minute launch window opens at 2:37 a.m. EDT (0637 GMT). SpaceX has said it's targeting a time in the latter half of that span — 3:09 a.m. EDT (0709 GMT). You can watch live via SpaceX beginning about 10 minutes before liftoff.

circular space mission patch showing a snarling ferret with the words "we are the champions" beneath it — The patch for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office's NROL-95 mission. (Image credit: NRO)

We know very little about NROL-95; the NRO, which operates the country's fleet of spy satellites, has provided no details about the payload or its activities.

The agency has revealed the NROL-95 mission patch. It depicts a snarling ferret with a nighttime sky in the background and the words "We are the Champions" on the emblem's lower border.

"The ferret, a clever creature, embodies agility and resilience — key traits for exploration. Its confident grin and bright eyes reflect a spirit of victory in a realm where determination meets adventure," NRO officials said in an NROL-95 mission description.

"The bold phrase 'We are the Champions' encapsulates the camaraderie and pride shared among those on this purposeful mission," they added.

NROL-95 will be the fourth NRO launch of 2026. The other three — NROL-105 in January, NROL-172 in May and NROL-179 in June — also flew aboard Falcon 9s, but from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Those three other missions were devoted to building out the NRO's "proliferated architecture" constellation, which will consist of hundreds of relatively small, cost-efficient reconnaissance satellites in Earth orbit.

If all goes to plan on Thursday, the Falcon 9 will come back to Earth for a landing at Cape Canaveral about 8.5 minutes after liftoff. It will be the seventh mission for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description.

If past SpaceX NRO launches are any guide, the company will cut off the livestream shortly thereafter, at the request of the agency.

Michael Wall is the Spaceflight and Tech Editor for Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers human and robotic spaceflight, military space, and exoplanets, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.