All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
The National Reconnaissance Office builds and operates the U.S. government’s spy satellites.
In the late 1990s the Air Force, DARPA, and the National Reconnaissance Office collaborated on plans for a constellation of radar remote-sensing satellites but the project was canceled in the 2000 federal budget.
A United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket launched the NROL-82 mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office from Space Launch Complex-6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
NROL-82 was the National Reconnaissance Office’s first launch from Vandenberg since January 2019.
The NROL-82 launch was the ninth Delta IV Heavy flight supporting the National Reconnaissance Office.
United Launch Alliance launched the classified National Reconnaissance Office satellite NROL-82 on a Delta IV Heavy rocket on 2021-04-26 at 1:47 p.m. Pacific from Space Launch Complex-6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
A United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket is in final preparations to launch the NROL-82 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office to support national security.
The National Reconnaissance Office received substantial feedback from its November 2020 request for information and is in the process of awarding a number of study contracts.
The National Reconnaissance Office plans to sign new deals with commercial providers of satellite radar imagery.
The National Reconnaissance Office is exploring the potential to purchase commercial radar (SAR) imagery.
SAR study contracts from the National Reconnaissance Office are likely to be awarded in mid–late 2021.
In 2019 the National Reconnaissance Office awarded study contracts to Maxar, Planet, and BlackSky under which those companies provided imagery for government assessment of quality and performance.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency will analyze imagery provided under NRO study contracts and is responsible for defining the imagery requirements the NRO procures.
In 2019, an interagency memorandum of agreement for a tactical space layer was signed by the Secretary of the Army, the Director of the National Reconnaissance Office, the Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and the director for defense intelligence.
The NRO and the NGA are developing validated requirements to enable a future competition to purchase radar imagery at scale for the long term.
Multiple commercial satellite-based Earth-intelligence providers received NRO study contracts over the two years following 2019 to evaluate their imagery.
The NRO awarded Capella Space a contract in December 2019 to experiment with the use of the company’s SAR data and assess its utility for national security.
The National Reconnaissance Office plans to sign new contracts with commercial providers of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite imagery to better understand private-sector capabilities.
The NRO launched an industry competition in 2019 to select new suppliers of electro-optical imagery and awarded study contracts to Maxar, Planet, and BlackSky.
The NRO currently spends about $300,000,000 per year on imagery provided by Maxar under a sole-source contract called EnhancedView.