All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
The joint NRO–U.K. MOD mission will launch from Spaceport Cornwall at Newquay Airport in Cornwall, England.
The NRO executed a range change for NROL-85 at the 12-month mark in the NSSL timeframe, the first such range change at that point in the NSSL schedule.
The National Reconnaissance Office’s NROL-85 mission launched on 2022-04-17 by SpaceX.
Twelve months before the launch, the NRO required the NROL-85 payload to be delivered to a different orbit, prompting a range change to Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.
The director of the NRO decided approximately 12 months before launch to change the NROL-85 range to Vandenberg to preserve the opportunity to optimize the orbit and to be able to reach both targeted orbit options.
Using a reused booster enabled the NRO to change launch coasts for NROL-85 without spending taxpayer dollars for range relocation.
The NRO and SpaceX agreed to move NROL-85 to the West Coast at no extra cost to the U.S. government in exchange for using a reused Falcon 9 first stage.
Capella Space and Iceye were among five companies with which the National Reconnaissance Office signed agreements in the prior year to tap into the commercial market for synthetic aperture radar data from satellites.
After the National Reconnaissance Office selects imagery providers, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency validates their data and builds trust and confidence in the accuracy of their measurements before consuming the products.
HyspecIQ won a National Reconnaissance Office study contract in 2019 that was extended through 2022-09-30.
The National Reconnaissance Office has worked closely with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and combatant commands to facilitate access to and rapid dissemination of commercial imagery, radio frequency data, and synthetic aperture radar data.
The National Reconnaissance Office is a key target customer for PredaSAR and is seeking relationships with several commercial radar data providers.
The National Reconnaissance Office issued a Broad Agency Announcement to survey commercial synthetic aperture radar capabilities and awarded contracts in January to Airbus U.S., Capella, Iceye U.S., PredaSAR, and Umbra to evaluate commercial SAR capabilities.
ICEYE US received a contract from the National Reconnaissance Office to participate in the NRO’s evaluation of commercial remote sensing companies operating synthetic aperture radar satellites.
NROL-85 was the 61st mission launched by the National Reconnaissance Office since the agency’s existence was disclosed in 1996.
The National Reconnaissance Office builds and operates classified U.S. government surveillance and intelligence satellites.
SpaceX previously launched National Reconnaissance Office satellites under commercial contracts.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched a U.S. National Reconnaissance Office satellite designated NROL-85 into orbit on 2022-04-17 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.
The National Reconnaissance Office and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency more than doubled the procurement of commercial electro-optical imagery over Ukraine as Russia prepared to invade.
BlackSky expects to be one of the companies selected by the National Reconnaissance Office for the Electro-Optical Commercial Layer contract 2022.