US to Launch Secret Spy Satellite

(found a pic)
Space.com

The launch is known simply as NROL-67, a classified satellite-delivery flight for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. The NRO is the secretive government agency that controls the country's spy satellites.

"From developing and acquiring new capabilities to launching and operating the most technically advanced systems, the NRO remains the premier space reconnaissance organization in the world," said NRO Director Betty Sapp.

The specific version of the Atlas 5 being used on this launch has been flown once before, to lob NASA's Curiosity rover to Mars.

It is the 44th Atlas launch and the 9th for the NRO. It will be ULA's 80th launch overall and third of 15 this year.

They will be launching this new spy satellite today, or has already launched most likely. NASA may not have much of a shuttle program left but they sure can afford to launch multi million dollar spy satellites up there.

reply to post by AzureSky

Does it occur that if you and everyone else KNOWS its a spy satellite...that its not much of one? And its only a public cover for all the other ones they launch and dont tell us.

When we lived in Cape Canaveral in the late 70s, I always had to giggle whenever they launched one of these. Usually the ground shook really hard, and immediately thereafter a news flash came across telling us it was a "super secret spy satellite" and not to worry. Some secret.

Now that relations with Russia are so strained, we need a new shuttle. I think this would be a great investment for America.

I wonder if this one will be aimed down at the planet, or out into space.. They would never admit looking outward, but they already have a few doing exactly that..

alienreality
I wonder if this one will be aimed down at the planet, or out into space.. They would never admit looking outward, but they already have a few doing exactly that..

edit on 24-3-2014 by alienreality because: (no reason given)

Oh who knows, next we'll hear about russia firing one up.
Would be interested to know the details of what it does though, probably point down though.

AzureSky

(found a pic)
Space.com

The launch is known simply as NROL-67, a classified satellite-delivery flight for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. The NRO is the secretive government agency that controls the country's spy satellites.

"From developing and acquiring new capabilities to launching and operating the most technically advanced systems, the NRO remains the premier space reconnaissance organization in the world," said NRO Director Betty Sapp.

The specific version of the Atlas 5 being used on this launch has been flown once before, to lob NASA's Curiosity rover to Mars.

It is the 44th Atlas launch and the 9th for the NRO. It will be ULA's 80th launch overall and third of 15 this year.

They will be launching this new spy satellite today, or has already launched most likely. NASA may not have much of a shuttle program left but they sure can afford to launch multi million dollar spy satellites up there.

Where does the article say that NASA has anything to do with this launch? I think this is a military launch, as are most that have to do with placing spy satellites in orbit. Nothing out of the ordinary.

reply to post by Flatfish


I didn't mean i direct correlation between NASA and this,
Just saying they(being the government) can afford to send spy equipment up but not men to the space station (gotta send them to russia.. oh wait..)

reply to post by AzureSky


heh, it is pretty silly but i imagine the air force has a bit more money than nasa for such things.

reply to post by mysterioustranger


They can't really keep launches secret from foreign intelligence, so why bother pretending?

Civilian satellite chasers on the ground will have it sighted and it's orbit calculated within days.

Shhhhhh! You told!
Worst. Secret. Ever.

we can know where it is, where it will be at what time of day.
But not what it's doing or what it is exactly. I'm sure every intelligence agency knows, or perhaps not.

Rockets fascinate me too.

reply to post by AzureSky


Not quite as fun/colorful as the octopus emblem/insignia of NROL-39....

I like the Pegasus emblem/insignia of this one though:



Some more pics Here

reply to post by mysterioustranger


Ok, it's a spy satellite. Optical? Radar? ELINT/SIGINT? Combination? What kind of recon does it do? What kind of systems does it have on it to do the mission? Where is it monitoring?

There's a lot we don't know about it, other than it's a recon satellite, which doesn't tell us much at all.

I wonder when they are going to run out of those mythical beast emblems and why they even do that in the first place? Btw doesn't Russia make the engines for the atlas V? I wonder how many they have stocked up!

Zaphod58
reply to post by mysterioustranger

 

Ok, it's a spy satellite. Optical? Radar? ELINT/SIGINT? Combination? What kind of recon does it do? What kind of systems does it have on it to do the mission? Where is it monitoring?

There's a lot we don't know about it, other than it's a recon satellite, which doesn't tell us much at all.

What we need to do is get General Carlson on Ask Me Anything. It might go like this:

Q: How do NROs latest satellites work?

A: Well, I can't answer that

eta: what do you know about volumetric ground imaging using coherent light sources?

Bedlam
eta: what do you know about volumetric ground imaging using coherent light sources?

edit on 24-3-2014 by Bedlam because: (no reason given)

Not a lot. I've heard very little about it.

NiZZiM
I wonder when they are going to run out of those mythical beast emblems...

If I had a vote, I'd vote for the next one to be a Kraken.

The Latin phrase might be "Solve Kraken"

So Russia for example can track this satellite from the time it leaves the ground to the time it's snug in it's orbit. Whats to stop them from launching their own satellite only for the sole purpose to intercept and decode the US spy satellite transmissions? At least beam the data back for analysis.

if every country did this, we would have world peace because a stalemate would occur. Heck.. i really do hope Russia does this now, followed by China, North Korea and all others.

this is a new definition of 'secret'

Zaphod58

Bedlam
eta: what do you know about volumetric ground imaging using coherent light sources?

edit on 24-3-2014 by Bedlam because: (no reason given)

Not a lot. I've heard very little about it.

Hm. Should I do a RATS on it? Not a lot of open lit so I'd have to extrapolate from stuff that's not locked down. Still owe a lot of posts to the plasma thread.