National Reconnaissance Office

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Image:NRO logo.png The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is a department of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) which designs, builds and operates the reconnaissance satellites of the United States government. It also coordinates collection and analysis of information from airplane and satellite reconnaissance by the military services and the Central Intelligence Agency. It is funded through the National Reconnaissance Program, which is part of the National Foreign Intelligence Program.

The NRO works closely with its intelligence and space partners, which include the National Security Agency (NSA), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and the United States Strategic Command.

Contents 1 History 2 Organization 3 Spacecraft 4 NRO in Fiction 5 See also 6 External links

History

The NRO was established in 1960 to develop the nation's revolutionary satellite reconnaissance systems. It was endorsed by Dwight D. Eisenhower in February 1958 after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first orbital satellite. The need for the agency obtained greater urgency when Gary Powers was shot down in a Lockheed U-2 on May 1, 1960.

The NRO's first photo reconnaissance satellite program was called "Corona." The Corona program, whose existence was declassified February 24, 1995, existed from August 1960 to May 1972, although the first test flight occurred on February 28, 1959. The Corona system used (sometimes multiple) film capsules dropped by satellites, which were recovered mid-air by military craft. The first successful recovery from space occurred on August 12, 1960, and the first image from space taken six days later. The first imaging resolution was 8 meters, which was improved to 2 meters. Individual images covered, on average, an area of approximately 10 by 120 miles (16 by 190 km). The last Corona mission (the 145th), was launched May 25, 1972, and this mission's last images were taken May 31, 1972.

From May 1962 to August 1964, the NRO conducted 12 mapping missions as part of the "Argon" system. Only 7 of these missions were successful.

In 1963, the NRO conducted a mapping mission using higher resolution imagery, as part of the "Lanyard" program. The Lanyard program flew one successful mission.

Missions of the NRO subsequent to 1972 are still classified, and portions of many earlier programs remain unavailable to the public.

The existence of the NRO was declassified by the Deputy Secretary of Defense, as recommended by the Director of Central Intelligence on September 18, 1992.

A Washington Post article in September 1995 reported that the NRO had quietly hoarded between $1 billion and $1.7 billion in unspent funds without informing the Central Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon, or Congress. The CIA was in the midst of an inquiry into the NRO's funding because of complaints that the agency had spent $300 million of unspent funds from its classified budget to build a new headquarters building in Chantilly, Virginia a year earlier. In fact, the reports of an NRO slush fund turned out to be true. According to former CIA general counsel Jeffrey Smith, who led the investigation: "Our inquiry revealed that the NRO had for years accumulated very substantial amount as a 'rainy day fund.'"

Organization

The Director of the NRO is appointed by the Secretary of Defense with the consent of the Director of National Intelligence, without confirmation from Congress. Traditionally, the position was given to either the Undersecretary of the Air Force or the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space, but with the appointment of Donald M. Kerr as Director of the NRO in July 2005 the position is now independent.

The NRO is staffed by personnel from the CIA, the military services, and civilian personnel of the Department of Defense.

NRO Operations Squadron (NOPS) does the daily work of contacting satellites.

Spacecraft

The NRO spacecraft include:

• Keyhole series – photo imaging:
  • KH-1, KH-2, KH-3, KH-4, KH-4A, KH-4B Corona (1959)
  • KH-5 – Argon (1961)
  • KH-6 – Lanyard (1963)
  • KH-7 – Gambit (1963)
  • KH-8 – Gambit (1966)
  • KH-9 – Hexagon and Big Bird (1971)
  • KH-10 Dorian (cancelled)
  • KH-11 – Crystal and Kennan (1976)
  • KH-12 – Ikon and Improved Crystal (1990?)
  • KH-13 – (1999?)
• Samos – photo imaging (1960)
• Lacrosse/Onyx – radar imaging (1988)
• Chalet, Vortex and Mercury – signals intelligence
• Rhyolite, Aquacade – electronic intelligence
• Quasar, communications relay
• Misty/Zirconic

NRO in Fiction

Cthulhu themed role-playing game Delta Green has a fictional unit within NRO, named NRO Section Delta. Consisting of ruthless special agents, NRO Section Delta protects government conspiracies and fights to stop the players from achieving their objectives.

In the popular fiction book Deception Point by Dan Brown, the NRO is a major character group. The main character, Rachel Sexton, is an NRO analyst. Her boss, William Pickering, is head of the NRO. Later in the book, it is revealed that he is a "bad guy", and with Delta Force troopers, he attempts to assassinate her. This is more than a little fanciful, as the NRO does little more than design, repair, and maintain satellites for the DoD.

See also

• National Technical Means
• Reconnaissance satellite

External links

• National Reconnaissance Office website
• NRO for Kids!
• National Security Archive: The NRO Declassifiedde:National Reconnaissance Office

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