National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)

The USAF is debating whether to cancel a series of current and future contracts for the Space Development Agency and to use SpaceX-built assets instead.

The NROL-57 mission was launched March 21 at 2:49 a.m. EDT, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg SFB, California.

The demonstrator consists of two 6U cubesats designed by NRO’s advanced systems and tech directorate to support an “experimental technology research mission.”

The company will use the facility to support the design, development and production of new space superiority solutions and expand its classified operations.

The world is headed for a period of launcher abundance as the New Glenn expands rocket choice in the heavy-lift segment.

President-elect Donald Trump is poised to nominate Troy Meink, the principal deputy director of the NRO, to be the next secretary of the Air Force, Aviation Week has learned.

NROL-153 was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 10:53 p.m. EST from Space Launch Complex-4 East.

Donald Trump is reentering the White House as the U.S. faces an expanded threat environment in the space domain.

The seventh and eighth O3b mPOWER satellites were launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 5:26 p.m. EST from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

The first spacecraft from a U.S. Space Force and National Reconnaissance Office program to conduct space situational awareness are close to entering operation.

The spacecraft were launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 3:10 a.m. EST, supported by the U.S. Space Force’s Launch Delta 30.

The secretive agency is hitching its wagons to more commercial companies than ever before to harness emerging capabilities and field new remote sensing layers.

The Office released the BALISTA query in March 2024.

NROL-167 lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 1:13 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex-4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.

The office’s executive branch is refining a commercial procurement document for the radar commercial layer.

Commercial remote sensing capabilities are proliferating around the world, but U.S. restrictions could limit its global influence.

The once-classified office, first publicly acknowledged in 1992, is close to operationalizing its new constellation.

The agency worked in the shadows for decades before being declassified in 1992.

The NRO says it plans to launch about a half a dozen missions in support of the next-generation proliferated architecture in 2024.

The Space Force requested $29.6 billion in fiscal 2025, representing about 3.5% of the overall Defense Department budget request.

The DSMP satellite fleet has been in service since the early 1960s.

The House Appropriations Committee plans to allocate billions of dollars to fund missile-warning-and-tracking initiatives in its fiscal 2025 bill.