The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Defense and a member of the United States Intelligence Community that designs, builds, launches, and operates reconnaissance satellites for the U.S. federal government. It provides satellite intelligence, including signals intelligence (SIGINT), imagery intelligence (IMINT), and measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT), to various government agencies like the NSA, NGA, and DIA. The NRO partners with organizations such as the U.S. Space Force, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX, and its activities include developing advanced satellite technology and launching assets into orbit. Keywords associated with the NRO include: reconnaissance satellites, intelligence, national security, and space-based surveillance.
All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
BlackSky, Maxar Technologies, and Planet Labs won 10-year contracts from the National Reconnaissance Office to provide satellite imagery for U.S. intelligence, defense, and federal civil agencies.
Maxar won a $3,200,000,000 contract from the National Reconnaissance Office to supply satellite imagery over 10 years.
BlackSky was awarded the Electro Optical Commercial Layer (EOCL) contract with the National Reconnaissance Office valued at up to $1,021,000,000 over the next 10 years.
The U.S. Army plans to use commercial imagery services in addition to imagery it receives from the National Reconnaissance Office.
NROL-199 and NROL-162 were awarded to Rocket Lab by the National Reconnaissance Office under the Rapid Acquisition of a Small Rocket (RASR) contract.
The NROL-199 payload was designed, built, and is operated by the National Reconnaissance Office in partnership with the Australian Department of Defence.
The National Reconnaissance Office previously conducted the RASR-2 launch on 2020-06-13 from New Zealand using a Rocket Lab Electron rocket.
The NROL-199 payload was designed, built, and is operated by the National Reconnaissance Office in partnership with the Australian Department of Defence.
The NROL-199 payload was designed, built, and is operated by the National Reconnaissance Office in partnership with the Australian Department of Defence.
For lower-cost smallsat missions, the National Reconnaissance Office will buy satellite buses from the open market like the ones used by commercial operators.
NROL-199 was the second of two back-to-back national security missions for the National Reconnaissance Office performed by Rocket Lab.
Launch services for NROL-162 and NROL-199 were acquired through the National Reconnaissance Office’s Rapid Acquisition of a Small Rocket (RASR) contract.
Two SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets launched national security National Reconnaissance Office satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base earlier 2022.
The National Reconnaissance Office will continue to build large bespoke satellites and will increasingly rely on lower-cost commercial smallsats and payloads developed with international partners.
The National Reconnaissance Office will buy satellites from commercial production lines and seeks to adapt commercial practices to government systems to make its systems more efficient and more affordable.
The National Reconnaissance Office is an intelligence and defense agency that builds and operates classified surveillance satellites.
The National Reconnaissance Office previously launched NROL-151 on 2020-01-31 from New Zealand using a Rocket Lab Electron rocket.
NROL-199 was the second of two missions the National Reconnaissance Office developed in partnership with the Australian Department of Defence.
The National Reconnaissance Office plans to use the capability to launch from almost anywhere in the world to increase operational flexibility, add resilience, and enable reconstitution of capabilities after a mission failure or during a conflict.
A Rocket Lab Electron rocket launched the National Reconnaissance Office mission NROL-199 on 2022-08-04 at 1:00 a.m. Eastern.