National Reconnaissance Office
Encyclopedia
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), located in Chantilly, Virginia
Chantilly, Virginia
Chantilly is an unincorporated community located in western Fairfax County and southeastern Loudoun County of Northern Virginia. Recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau as a census designated place , the community population was 23,039 as of the 2010 census -- down from 41,041 in 2000, due to the...

, is one of the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. It designs, builds, and operates the spy satellite
Spy satellite
A spy satellite is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications....

s of the United States government.

Mission

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) develops and operates space reconnaissance systems and conducts intelligence-related activities for U.S. national security.

It also coordinates collection and analysis of information from airplane and satellite reconnaissance by the military services and the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...

. It is funded through the National Reconnaissance Program, which is part of the National Foreign Intelligence Program. The agency is part of the Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...

.

The NRO works closely with its intelligence and space partners, which include the National Security Agency
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...

 (NSA), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States with the primary mission of collecting, analyzing and distributing geospatial intelligence in support of national security. NGA was formerly known as the National Imagery and Mapping Agency ...

 (NGA), the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...

 (CIA), the Defense Intelligence Agency
Defense Intelligence Agency
The Defense Intelligence Agency is a member of the Intelligence Community of the United States, and is the central producer and manager of military intelligence for the United States Department of Defense, employing over 16,500 U.S. military and civilian employees worldwide...

 (DIA), the United States Strategic Command
United States Strategic Command
United States Strategic Command is one of nine Unified Combatant Commands of the United States Department of Defense . The Command, including components, employs more than 2,700 people, representing all four services, including DoD civilians and contractors, who oversee the command's operationally...

, Naval Research Laboratory
United States Naval Research Laboratory
The United States Naval Research Laboratory is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps and conducts a program of scientific research and development. NRL opened in 1923 at the instigation of Thomas Edison...

 and other agencies and organizations.

It has been proposed that the NRO share imagery of the United States itself with the National Applications Office
National Applications Office
The National Applications Office was a United States Department of Homeland Security program that provides local, state, and federal officials with extensive access to spy-satellite imagery. It has access to military satellites to observe the United States...

 for domestic law enforcement.
The NRO operates ground stations around the world that collect and distribute intelligence gathered from reconnaissance satellites.

According to Asia Times Online
Asia Times Online
Asia Times Online is a bilingual English‒Chinese, Internet-based newspaper covering geopolitics, politics, economics and business "from an Asian perspective"...

, one important mission of NRO satellites is the tracking of non-US submarines on patrol or on training missions in the world's oceans and seas.

History

The NRO was established on August 25, 1960, after management problems and insufficient progress with the USAF satellite reconnaissance program (see SAMOS
Samos (satellite)
The Samos E or SAMOS program was a relatively short-lived series of reconnaissance satellites for the United States in the early 1960s, also used as a cover for the intitial development of the KH-7 Gambit system...

 and MIDAS
Missile Defense Alarm System
The Missile Defense Alarm System was an American system of 12 early-warning satellites that provided limited notice of Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile launches between 1960 and 1966...

). The formation was based on a 25 August 1960 recommendation to President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...

 during a special National Security Council
United States National Security Council
The White House National Security Council in the United States is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials and is part of the Executive Office of the...

 meeting, and the agency was to coordinate the USAF and CIA's (and later the Navy and NSA's) reconnaissance activities.

The NRO's first photo reconnaissance satellite program was the Corona program
Corona (satellite)
The Corona program was a series of American strategic reconnaissance satellites produced and operated by the Central Intelligence Agency Directorate of Science & Technology with substantial assistance from the U.S. Air Force...

, the existence of which was declassified February 24, 1995, existed from August 1960 to May 1972, although the first test flight occurred on February 28, 1959. The Corona system used (sometimes multiple) film capsules dropped by satellites, which were recovered mid-air by military craft. The first successful recovery from space (Discoverer XIII) occurred on August 12, 1960, and the first image from space was seen six days later. The first imaging resolution was 8 meters, which was improved to 2 meters. Individual images covered, on average, an area of about 10 by. The last Corona mission (the 145th), was launched May 25, 1972, and this mission's last images were taken May 31, 1972. From May 1962 to August 1964, the NRO conducted 12 mapping missions as part of the "Argon
KH-5
KH-5 ARGON was a series of reconnaissance satellites produced by the United States from February 1961 to August 1964. The KH-5 operated similarly to the Corona series of satellites, as it ejected a canister of photographic film. At least 12 missions were attempted, but at least 7 resulted in...

" system. Only seven were successful.
In 1963, the NRO conducted a mapping mission using higher resolution imagery, as part of the "Lanyard
KH-6
Codenamed Lanyard, the KH-6 was the unsuccessful first attempt to develop and deploy a high-resolution optical reconnaissance satellite by the United States National Reconnaissance Office. Launches and launch attempts spanned the period from March to July 1963. The project was quickly put together...

" program. The Lanyard program flew one successful mission.
NRO missions since 1972 are classified, and portions of many earlier programs remain unavailable to the public.

The first press reports on NRO started in 1971. The first official acknowledgement of NRO was a Senate committee report in October 1973, which inadvertently exposed the existence of the NRO.
In 1985, a New York Times article revealed details on the operations of the NRO.
The existence of the NRO was declassified on September 18, 1992, by the Deputy Secretary of Defense, as recommended by the Director of Central Intelligence.

A Washington Post article in September 1995 reported that the NRO had quietly hoarded between $1 billion and $1.7 billion in unspent funds without informing the Central Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...

, or Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

. The CIA was in the midst of an inquiry into the NRO's funding because of complaints that the agency had spent $300 million of hoarded funds from its classified budget to build a new headquarters building in Chantilly, Virginia
Chantilly, Virginia
Chantilly is an unincorporated community located in western Fairfax County and southeastern Loudoun County of Northern Virginia. Recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau as a census designated place , the community population was 23,039 as of the 2010 census -- down from 41,041 in 2000, due to the...

, a year earlier.

In total, NRO had accumulated US$ 3.8 billion (inflation adjusted US$ billion in ) in forward funding. As a consequence, NRO's three distinct accounting systems were merged.

The presence of the classified new headquarters was revealed by the Federation of American Scientists
Federation of American Scientists
The Federation of American Scientists is a nonpartisan, 501 organization intent on using science and scientific analysis to attempt make the world more secure. FAS was founded in 1945 by scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bombs...

 who obtained unclassified copies of the blueprint
Blueprint
A blueprint is a type of paper-based reproduction usually of a technical drawing, documenting an architecture or an engineering design. More generally, the term "blueprint" has come to be used to refer to any detailed plan....

s filed with the building permit application. After 9/11 those blueprints were apparently classified. The reports of an NRO slush fund
Slush fund
A slush fund, colloquially, is an auxiliary monetary account or a reserve fund. However, in the context of corrupt dealings, such as those by governments or large corporations, a slush fund can have particular connotations of illegality, illegitimacy, or secrecy in regard to the use of this money...

 were true. According to former CIA general counsel
General Counsel
A general counsel is the chief lawyer of a legal department, usually in a corporation or government department. The term is most used in the United States...

 Jeffrey Smith, who led the investigation: "Our inquiry revealed that the NRO had for years accumulated very substantial amounts as a 'rainy day fund.'"

In 1999 the NRO embarked on a project with Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...

 entitled Future Imagery Architecture
Future Imagery Architecture
Future Imagery Architecture was a program to design a new generation of optical and radar imaging US reconnaissance satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office . In 2005 NRO director Donald Kerr recommended the project's termination, and the optical component of the program was finally...

 to create a new generation of imaging satellites. In 2002 the project was far behind schedule and would most likely cost $2 billion to $3 billion more than planned, according to NRO records. The government pressed forward with efforts to complete the project, but after two more years, several more review panels and billions more in expenditures, the project was killed in what the Times report calls "perhaps the most spectacular and expensive failure in the 50-year history of American spy satellite projects."
In what may have been a bizarre coincidence, NRO was planning an exercise on September 11, 2001, involving an accidental aircraft crash into one of its buildings. This has been cited by 9/11 conspiracy theorists
9/11 conspiracy theories
9/11 conspiracy theories are theories that disagree with the widely accepted account that the September 11 attacks were perpetrated solely by al-Qaeda. These theories arose because of what proponents of the conspiracy theories believe to be inconsistencies in the official conclusions or some...

 as proof of their beliefs. In charge of the exercise was CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...

 man John Fulton, head of the NRO's "Strategic War Gaming Division". [See below.]

In January 2008, the government announced that a reconnaissance satellite operated by the NRO would make an unplanned and uncontrolled re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere in the next several months. Satellite watching
Satellite watching
Satellite watching or satellite spotting is a hobby which consists of the observation and tracking of Earth artificial satellites. People with this hobby are variously called satellite watchers, trackers, spotters, observers, etc....

 hobbyists said that it was likely the USA-193, built by Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area....

 Corporation, which failed shortly after achieving orbit in December 2006.
On February 14, 2008, the Pentagon announced that rather than allowing the satellite to make an uncontrolled re-entry, it would instead be shot down by a missile fired from a Navy cruiser.
The intercept took place on February 21, 2008.

In July 2008, the NRO declassified the existence of its Synthetic Aperture Radar
Synthetic aperture radar
Synthetic-aperture radar is a form of radar whose defining characteristic is its use of relative motion between an antenna and its target region to provide distinctive long-term coherent-signal variations that are exploited to obtain finer spatial resolution than is possible with conventional...

 satellites, citing difficulty in discussing the creation of the Space-Based Radar
Space-Based Radar
Space-based radar refers to space-borne radar systems that may have any of a variety of purposes. A number of earth-observing radar satellites, such as RadarSat, have employed synthetic aperture radar to obtain terrain and land-cover information about the Earth.Space-Based Radar is a proposed...

 with the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

 and other entities.

In August 2009, The Black Vault FOIA
Freedom of Information Act (United States)
The Freedom of Information Act is a federal freedom of information law that allows for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States government. The Act defines agency records subject to disclosure, outlines mandatory disclosure...

 archive obtained a copy of the NRO video, "Satellite Reconnaissance: Secret Eyes in Space." The 7 minute video chronicles the early days of the NRO
NRO
NRO may stand for:* National Reconnaissance Office, a United States intelligence agency whose primary purpose is the maintenance of that country's reconnaissance satellites* National Review Online, web version of the magazine National Review...

 and many of its early programs.

At the National Space Symposium in April 2010 NRO director General Bruce Carlson, USAF (Ret.) announced that till the end of 2011 NRO is embarking on "the most aggressive launch schedule that this organization has undertaken in the last twenty-five years. There are a number of very large and very critical reconnaissance satellites that will go into orbit in the next year to a year and a half."

Organization

The NRO is part of the Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...

. The Director of the NRO is appointed by the Secretary of Defense
United States Secretary of Defense
The Secretary of Defense is the head and chief executive officer of the Department of Defense of the United States of America. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a Defense Minister in other countries...

 with the consent of the Director of National Intelligence
United States Director of National Intelligence
The Director of National Intelligence , is the United States government official subject to the authority, direction and control of the President, who is responsible under the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 for:...

, without confirmation from Congress. Traditionally, the position was given to either the Under Secretary of the Air Force
United States Under Secretary of the Air Force
The Under Secretary of the Air Force is the second-highest ranking civilian official in the Department of the Air Force of the United States of America, serving directly under the Secretary of the Air Force...

 or the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space, but with the appointment of Donald Kerr
Donald Kerr
Donald MacLean Kerr, Jr. is the current Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Thursday, October 4, 2007. He most recently was the Director of the National Reconnaissance Office. He was sworn into that position July 2005 by Secretary of Defense...

 as Director of the NRO in July 2005 the position is now independent. The Agency has the following directorates:- SIGINT Systems; Communications Systems; IMINT systems; and Advanced Systems and Technology. (SIGINT=signals intelligence; IMINT
IMINT
Imagery Intelligence , is an intelligence gathering discipline which collects information via satellite and aerial photography. As a means of collecting intelligence, IMINT is a subset of intelligence collection management, which, in turn, is a subset of intelligence cycle management...

=imagery intelligence.)

Program A to D

With the inception of the NRO, several legacy organizations were incorporated:
  • Program A
    NRO Program A
    The United States' National Reconnaissance Office's Program A was a component of the National Reconnaissance Program . Program A took the remnants of the Air Force Office of Special Projects The United States' National Reconnaissance Office's Program A was a component of the National...

    : Secretary of the Air Force Space Systems (SAF/SS)
  • Program B: CIA Office for Engineering & Development (OD&E)
  • Program C: Naval Research Lab
    United States Naval Research Laboratory
    The United States Naval Research Laboratory is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps and conducts a program of scientific research and development. NRL opened in 1923 at the instigation of Thomas Edison...

     and elements of the Naval Security Group
    Naval Security Group
    The Naval Security Group was an organization within the United States Navy, tasked with intelligence gathering and denial of intelligence to adversaries. A large part of this is Signals Intelligence gathering, Cryptology and Information Assurance...

  • Program D: National Reconnaissance Program (NRP) Aircraft Reconnaissance


A major restructuring occurred in 1993 with the dissolution of Programs A to C.

Personnel

In 2007, the NRO described itself as "(..) a hybrid organization consisting of some 3000 personnel and jointly staffed by members of the armed services, the Central Intelligence Agency and DOD civilian personnel." Between the 2010 and 2012, the workforce is expected to increase by 100. The majority of the workers for the NRO are private corporate contractors, with $7 billion out of the agency's $8 billion budget going to private corporations.

Budget

NRO derives its funding both from the US intelligence budget
United States intelligence budget
The United States intelligence budget comprises all the funding for the 16 agencies of the United States Intelligence Community. These agencies and other programs fit into one of the intelligence budget’s two components, the National Intelligence Program and the Military Intelligence Program...

 and the military budget
Military budget of the United States
The military budget is that portion of the United States discretionary federal budget that is allocated to the Department of Defense, or more broadly, the portion of the budget that goes to any defense-related expenditures...

. In 1971, the annual budget was estimated to be around $1 billion (inflation adjusted US$ billion in ). By 1994, the annual budget had risen to $6 billion (inflation adjusted US$ billion in ), and for 2010 it is estimated to amount to $15 billion (inflation adjusted US$ billion in ). This would correspond to 19% of the overall US intelligence budget of $80 billion for FY2010. For Fiscal Year 2012 the budget request for science and technology includes an increase to almost 6% of the NRO budget after it had dropped to just about 3% of the overall budget in recent years.

NRO Directives and Instructions

Under the Freedom of Information Act the NRO declassified a list of their secret directives for internal use. The following is a list of the released directives, which are available for download:
  • NROD 10-2 - "National Reconnaissance Office External Management Policy"
  • NROD 10-4 - "National Reconnaissance Office Sensitive Activities Management Group"
  • NROD 10-5 - "Office of Corporate System Engineer Charter"
  • NROD 22-1 - "Office of Inspector General"
  • NROD 22-2 - "Employee Reports of Urgent Concerns to Congress"
  • NROD 22-3 - "Obligations to report evidence of Possible Violations of Federal Criminal Law and Illegal Intelligence Activities"
  • NROD 50-1 - "Executive Order 12333 - Intelligence Activities Affecting United States Persons"
  • NROD 61-1 - "NRO Internet Policy, Information Technology"
  • NROD 82-1a - "NRO Space Launch Management"
  • NROD 110-2 - "National Reconnaissance Office Records and Information Management Program"
  • NROD 120-1 - UNKNOWN, AWAITING FOIA RESPONSE
  • NROD 120-2 - "The NRO Awards and Recognition Programs"
  • NROD 120-3 - "Executive Secretarial Panel"
  • NROD 120-4 - "National Reconnaissance Pioneer Recognition Program"
  • NROD 120-5 - "National Reconnaissance Office Utilization of the Intergovernmental Personnel Act Mobility Program"
  • NROD 121-1 - "Training of NRO Personnel"
  • NROI 150-4 - "Prohibited Items in NRO Headquarters Buildings/Property"

"Strategic War Gaming Division"

According to a pamphlet advertising a security conference in 2002, the NRO has a "Strategic Wargaming Division", then headed by John Fulton, who was "on staff for the CIA".

Spacecraft


The NRO spacecraft include:
  • Keyhole series — photo imaging
    Photography
    Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...

    :
    • KH-1, KH-2, KH-3, KH-4, KH-4A, KH-4B
      Corona (satellite)
      The Corona program was a series of American strategic reconnaissance satellites produced and operated by the Central Intelligence Agency Directorate of Science & Technology with substantial assistance from the U.S. Air Force...

       Corona (1959–1972)
    • KH-5
      KH-5
      KH-5 ARGON was a series of reconnaissance satellites produced by the United States from February 1961 to August 1964. The KH-5 operated similarly to the Corona series of satellites, as it ejected a canister of photographic film. At least 12 missions were attempted, but at least 7 resulted in...

       — Argon (1961–1962)
    • KH-6
      KH-6
      Codenamed Lanyard, the KH-6 was the unsuccessful first attempt to develop and deploy a high-resolution optical reconnaissance satellite by the United States National Reconnaissance Office. Launches and launch attempts spanned the period from March to July 1963. The project was quickly put together...

      Lanyard (1963)
    • KH-7
      KH-7
      Codenamed Gambit, the KH-7 was a reconnaissance satellite used by the United States from July 1963 to June 1967. Like the older CORONA system, it acquired imagery intelligence by taking photographs and returning the undeveloped film to earth. It achieved a typical ground-resolution of to...

       — Gambit (1963–1967)
    • KH-8
      KH-8
      The KH-8, codenamed Gambit 3 was a long-lived series of reconnaissance satellites of the "Key Hole" series used by the United States from July 1966 to April 1984, and also known as Low Altitude Surveillance Platform. The satellite ejected canisters of photographic film that were retrieved as they...

       — Gambit (1966–1984)
    • KH-9 — Hexagon and Big Bird (1971–1986)
    • KH-10
      Manned Orbiting Laboratory
      The Manned Orbiting Laboratory , originally referred to as the Manned Orbital Laboratory, was part of the United States Air Force's manned spaceflight program, a successor to the cancelled Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar military reconnaissance space plane project...

       — Dorian (cancelled)
    • KH-11
      KH-11
      The KH-11 KENNAN, renamed CRYSTAL in 1982 and also referenced by the codenames 1010, and "Key Hole", is a type of reconnaissance satellite launched by the American National Reconnaissance Office since December 1976...

       — Kennan, Crystal, Improved Crystal, and Ikon (1976–2011)
  • Samos
    Samos (satellite)
    The Samos E or SAMOS program was a relatively short-lived series of reconnaissance satellites for the United States in the early 1960s, also used as a cover for the intitial development of the KH-7 Gambit system...

     — photo imaging (1960–1962)
  • Samos-F — SIGINT
    SIGINT
    Signals intelligence is intelligence-gathering by interception of signals, whether between people , whether involving electronic signals not directly used in communication , or combinations of the two...

     (1962-1971)
  • Poppy
    Poppy (satellite)
    POPPY is the code name given to a series of U.S. intelligence satellites operated by the National Reconnaissance Office. The POPPY satellites recorded ELINT data, targeting radar installations in the Soviet Union and Soviet naval ships at sea....

      – ELINT program (1962–1971) continuing Naval Research Laboratory's GRAB
    Galactic Radiation and Background
    Galactic Radiation and Background was the covername for Project Dyno ELINT intelligence satellites operated by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory shortly after the Cold War U-2 incident of 1960...

     (1960–1961)
  • Jumpseat
    Jumpseat (satellite)
    Jumpseat, also known as AFP-711 is reportedly a code name for a class of SIGINT reconnaissance satellites operated by the National Reconnaissance Office for the United States Air Force in the 1970s and 1980s...

     (1971–1983) and Trumpet
    Trumpet (satellite)
    TRUMPET , called Advanced Jumpseat by some observers, is reportedly a codename for a series of ELINT reconnaissance satellites launched by the United States during the 1990s to replace the Jumpseat satellites...

     (1994–2008) SIGINT
  • Lacrosse/Onyx
    Lacrosse (satellite)
    For the 2009 Lunar Impactor Mission designed to crash into the moon, see LCROSS.Lacrosse and Onyx are the code names for the United States' National Reconnaissance Office terrestrial radar imaging reconnaissance satellite. While not officially confirmed by the NRO or anybody in the U.S...

     — radar imaging
    Imaging radar
    Traditional radar sends directional pulses of electromagnetic energy and detects the presence, position and motion of an object by analyzing the portion of the energy reflected from the object back to the radar station. Imaging radar attempts to form a picture of the object as well, by mapping...

     (1988–)
  • Canyon
    Canyon (satellite)
    CANYON refers to a series of seven United States spy satellites launched between 1968 and 1977. Also known as AFP-827 , the satellites were developed with the participation of the Air Force...

     (1968–1977), Vortex/Chalet (1978–1989) and Mercury
    Mercury (satellite)
    MERCURY is reportedly the name of a series of three United States spy satellites launched in the 1990s. These satellites were launched and operated by the National Reconnaissance Office with the participation of the United States Air Force. Two of the three launches from Cape Canaveral were...

    (1994–1998)—SIGINT including COMINT
  • Rhyolite/Aquacade
    Rhyolite/Aquacade
    Rhyolite and later, Aquacade are reportedly code names for a class of SIGINT spy satellites operated by the National Reconnaissance Office for the United States Central Intelligence Agency. The National Security Agency was also reportedly involved...

    (1970–1978), Magnum/Orion
    Magnum (satellite)
    Magnum is the code name for a class of SIGINT spy satellites reportedly operated by the National Reconnaissance Office for the United States Central Intelligence Agency...

     (1985–1990), and Mentor
    Mentor (satellite)
    MENTOR, sometimes called Advanced Orion by observers, is reportedly a code-name for a class of United States spy satellites that collect signals intelligence from space...

     (1995–2010)—SIGINT
  • Quasar, communications relay
    Repeater
    A repeater is an electronic device that receives asignal and retransmits it at a higher level and/or higher power, or onto the other side of an obstruction, so that the signal can cover longer distances.-Description:...

  • Misty/Zirconic
    Zirconic
    Zirconic is the name of a program for the development of stealth reconnaissance satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office. The program includes the Misty and Prowler spacecraft.- External links :* * * , The Washington Post, December 11, 2004....

     – stealth IMINT
    IMINT
    Imagery Intelligence , is an intelligence gathering discipline which collects information via satellite and aerial photography. As a means of collecting intelligence, IMINT is a subset of intelligence collection management, which, in turn, is a subset of intelligence cycle management...

    • Enhanced Imaging System
  • Next Generation Electo-Optical (NGEO), modular system, designed for incremental improvements (in development).
  • NROL-1 through NROL-66 – various secret satellites. NROL stands for National Reconnaissance Office Launch.

Locations

In October 2008, NRO declassified five mission ground stations: three in the United States, near Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

; Aurora, Colorado
Aurora, Colorado
City of Aurora is a Home Rule Municipality spanning Arapahoe, Adams, and Douglas counties in Colorado. Aurora is an eastern suburb of the Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area . The city is the third most populous city in the Colorado and the 56th most populous city in the...

; and Las Cruces, New Mexico
Las Cruces, New Mexico
Las Cruces, also known as "The City of the Crosses", is the county seat of Doña Ana County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 97,618 in 2010 according to the 2010 Census, making it the second largest city in the state....

, and a presence at RAF Menwith Hill
RAF Menwith Hill
RAF Menwith Hill is a Royal Air Force station near Harrogate, North Yorkshire which provides communications and intelligence support services to the United Kingdom and the United States of America...

, UK, and at the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap
Pine Gap
Pine Gap is the commonly used name for a satellite tracking station at, some south-west of the town of Alice Springs in the centre of Australia which is operated by both Australia and the United States. The facility has become a key part of the local economy.It consists of a large computer complex...

, Australia.
  • NRO Headquarters 38.882°N 77.452°W - Chantilly, Virginia
  • National Reconnaissance Operations Center
    National Reconnaissance Operations Center
    The United States' National Reconnaissance Operations Center is the focal point for the National Reconnaissance Office's current operations and for time-sensitive space-borne intelligence reporting for the United States Intelligence Community...

     (NROC) - Chantilly, Virginia
  • Aerospace Data Facility, Colorado (ADF-C) 39.718°N 104.777°W, Buckley Air Force Base
    Buckley Air Force Base
    Buckley Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base in Aurora, Colorado, that was established by the U.S. Army in 1943. The base was named in honor of the World War I Army pilot 1LT John Harold Buckley.-Overview:...

    , Aurora, Colorado
    Aurora, Colorado
    City of Aurora is a Home Rule Municipality spanning Arapahoe, Adams, and Douglas counties in Colorado. Aurora is an eastern suburb of the Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area . The city is the third most populous city in the Colorado and the 56th most populous city in the...

  • Aerospace Data Facility, East (ADF-E) 38.736°N 77.158°W, Fort Belvoir
    Fort Belvoir
    Fort Belvoir is a United States Army installation and a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Originally, it was the site of the Belvoir plantation. Today, Fort Belvoir is home to a number of important United States military organizations...

    , Virginia
    Virginia
    The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

  • Aerospace Data Facility, Southwest (ADF-SW) 32.502°N 106.611°W, White Sands
    White Sands Missile Range
    White Sands Missile Range is a rocket range of almost in parts of five counties in southern New Mexico. The largest military installation in the United States, WSMR includes the and the WSMR Otera Mesa bombing range...

    , New Mexico
    New Mexico
    New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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