List of NRO Launches

This is a list of NRO Launch (NROL) designations, i.e. satellites operated by the United States National Reconnaissance Office.

References

External links

USA-247

USA-247, also known as NRO Launch 39 or NROL-39, is an American reconnaissance satellite, operated by the National Reconnaissance Office. The USA-247 launch received a relatively high level of press coverage due to the mission's choice of logo, which depicts an octopus sitting astride the globe with the motto "Nothing Is Beyond Our Reach". The logo was extensively criticized in light of the 2013 surveillance disclosures.

Launch details

Launched in 2013, it has been identified as a Topaz radar imaging satellite, developed as part of the Future Imagery Architecture program, to replace the earlier Onyx spacecraft.

USA-247 was launched by United Launch Alliance using an Atlas V carrier rocket flying in the 501 configuration, along with twelve CubeSats being carried as secondary payloads. Five of the CubeSats were a part of NASA ELaNa II manifest. Space Launch Complex 3E at the Vandenberg Air Force Base was used to conduct the launch, which took place at 07:14:30 UTC on 6 December 2013 (23:14 local time on 5 December). Identified as NRO Launch 39, it marked the forty-third flight of an Atlas V. The rocket used had been named Belle, and had tail number AV-042.

USA-229

USA-229, known before launch as NRO Launch 34 (NROL-34), is a pair of American signals intelligence satellites which were launched in 2011. They are operated by the United States National Reconnaissance Office.

Both satellites were deployed by a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 411 carrier rocket, which launched from Space Launch Complex 3E at the Vandenberg Air Force Base. The launch occurred at 04:24 UTC on 15 April 2011. The rocket placed the satellites into a low Earth orbit. By 04:29 UTC, official updates on the status of the spacecraft had been discontinued.

Whilst details of the satellites and their missions are officially classified, amateur observers have identified that the Atlas V deployed two satellites, one of which has officially been catalogued as debris. The two spacecraft have been identified as being a pair of third or fourth generation Naval Ocean Surveillance System satellites. Amateur observations have located the spacecraft in an orbit with a perigee of 1,025 kilometres (637 mi) and an apogee of 1,207 kilometres (750 mi), inclined at 64.4 degrees to the plane of the equator. Current generation NOSS satellites are always launched and operated in pairs, and are used to locate and track ships from the radio transmissions that they emit.