Spy sats on the West Coast: SpaceX lofted another batch of classified U.S. spy satellites on Sept. 22, with a Falcon 9 roaring off Vandenberg Space Force Base at 1:38 p.m. EDT space.com. The NROL-48 mission – SpaceX’s 11th dedicated launch for the National Reconnaissance Office’s new “proliferated architecture” – carried a cluster of undisclosed reconnaissance payloads. The NRO is pivoting to large numbers of smaller satellites instead of a few big ones, aiming to deliver “an order of magnitude more signals and images” with faster revisit times and resilience space.com. SpaceX’s webcast cut off early at the NRO’s request, but the Falcon 9’s first stage landed safely back at Vandenberg space.com. “To stay ahead… the NRO is modernizing its architecture… delivering more capability faster with increased resilience,” officials said of the shift to many mini-satellites space.com.