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.
Under a 2018 Launch Vehicle Production Services contract, United Launch Alliance is building Delta 4 Heavy hardware for three National Reconnaissance Office missions and the contract is now worth $467,500,000 after a $149,000,000 modification in May 2020 and a $156,700,000 modification earlier in August 2020.
The National Reconnaissance Office’s NROL-82 mission is planned to launch on a Delta 4 Heavy from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California in 2020.
The National Reconnaissance Office’s NROL-44 mission is planned to launch on a Delta 4 Heavy from Cape Canaveral, Florida in 2020.
Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems will launch a National Reconnaissance Office payload later 2019 using a Minotaur launch vehicle.
United Launch Alliance received a $467,500,000 Launch Vehicle Production Services contract covering three Delta 4 Heavy missions for the National Reconnaissance Office.
The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center awarded United Launch Alliance a $156,700,000 contract modification on 2019-08-07 for a Delta 4 Heavy launch of the National Reconnaissance Office mission NROL-70.
The Atlas 5 aft bulkhead carrier was originally developed for the National Reconnaissance Office to take advantage of excess capacity on large rockets to place small payloads into orbit.
A National Reconnaissance Office satellite was launched from SLC-6 in January.
One option in the Air Force’s National Security Launch Architecture study is to set aside launches such as demonstration payloads from the Space Test Program or the National Reconnaissance Office to create opportunities for non-Phase 2 providers to prepare for Phase 3.
The NRO awarded one-year study contracts in 2019 to Maxar, Planet, and BlackSky to evaluate the companies’ products and the projected size and capacity of their satellite constellations.
The NRO pays $300,000,000 per year for access to Maxar’s WorldView-1, WorldView-2, and WorldView-3 satellites and its image library under the program renamed EnhancedView Follow-On.
The National Reconnaissance Office took over responsibility for buying commercial satellite imagery from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in 2018.
Christopher Scolese intends for the National Reconnaissance Office to remain independent because the NRO supports non-defense agencies such as NASA while collaborating with U.S. Space Command.
The National Reconnaissance Office is a joint intelligence community and Department of Defense organization that develops, launches, and operates signals, imagery, and communications satellites.
In 2018, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency planned to hand over responsibility for acquiring commercial satellite imagery to the National Reconnaissance Office.
The National Reconnaissance Office planned to seek vendors offering other types of imagery, including radar.
The National Reconnaissance Office issued a study contract to Planet Federal, a Planet subsidiary established in 2018 to work closely with U.S. government agencies.
The committee urges the National Reconnaissance Office to procure commercial imagery from vendors to the maximum extent practicable and to work with multiple commercial providers for high and medium-resolution global coverage and high revisit rates.
The committee supports transferring responsibility for acquiring commercial imagery from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to the National Reconnaissance Office.
The National Reconnaissance Office awarded commercial imagery study contracts to BlackSky Global, Maxar Technologies, and Planet.