Secret U.S. Spy Satellite Launches Into Orbit on Huge Rocket

[SLV^GLD]

Secret U.S. Spy Satellite Launches Into Orbit on Huge Rocket
By Tariq Malik (http://www.space.com/php/contactus/feedback.php?r=tm)
SPACE.com Managing Editor
posted: 21 November 2010
08:59 pm ET
This story was updated Nov. 22 at 1:28 p.m. ET.

A huge unmanned rocket carrying a secret new spy satellite for the United States roared into space Sunday (Nov. 21) to deliver what one reconnaissance official has touted as "the largest satellite in the world" into orbit.

The giant booster – a Delta 4 Heavy rocket – blasted off at 5:58 p.m. EST (2258 GMT) from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida carrying a classified payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. [Photo of the spy satellite's dazzling night launch] (http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=spy-satellite-nrol32-launch-101121-02.jpg&cap=A+United+Launch+Alliance+Delta+4+Heavy+launche s+with+a+National+Reconnaissance+Office+payload+NR OL-32+from+Space+Launch+Complex-37+at+5%3A58+p.m.+EST+%282258+GMT%29.++Credit%3A+P at+Corkery%2FUnited+Launch+Alliance+[%3Ca+href%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.space.com%2Fmissionla unches%2Fhuge-rocket-launches-secret-spy-satellite-101121.html%3EFull+Story%3C%2Fa%3E)

"This mission helps to ensure that vital NRO resources will continue to bolster our national defense," said Air Force Brig. Gen. Ed Wilson, commander 45th Space Wing, after the successful launch.

The satellite, called NROL-32, launched after a series of delays from technical glitches. The most recent glitch, a pair of faulty temperature sensors, thwarted a Nov. 19 launch attempt.

The exact purpose of the new spy satellite NROL-32 (http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/new-american-spy-satellite-launching-thursday-101117.html) is secret, but one NRO official has hinted at the huge size of the reconnaissance spacecraft.

In a Sept. 13 address at the Air Force Association's Air and Space Conference, NRO director Bruce Carlson, a retired Air Force general, told an audience that this Delta 4 Heavy rocket would launch "with the largest satellite in the world (http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090701-sn-largest-satellite-launched.html) on it."

For comparison, in July 2009 a satellite called TerreStar-1 – touted as the world's largest commercial satellite ever built – launched into space atop an Ariane 5 rocket. TerreStar-1 is 15,233 pounds (6,910 kg) satellite equipped with a huge 60-foot (18-meter) antenna. Last week, the SkyTerra-1 mobile communications satellite launched with its own giant antenna, one that is about 72 feet (nearly 22 meters) across.

The Delta 4 Heavy rocket is the United States' biggest unmanned rocket (http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/091024-ares1x-worlds-tallest-rockets.html) currently in service and has 2 millions pounds of thrust, making it the most powerful liquid fueled booster available today. A Delta 4 Heavy rocket stands 235 feet (72 meters) tall and is actually made up of three boosters, each called a Common Booster Core, arranged in a line to give it a three-column appearance.

The rocket is built and launched by the United Launch Alliance, a partnership between Lockheed Martin and Boeing. It made its first flight in 2004 and is capable of launching payloads of up to 24 tons into low-Earth orbit and 11 tons toward the geosynchronous orbits used by communications satellites.

Tonight's launch marked the fourth launch of a Delta 4 Heavy rocket and the second satellite launch in three months for the NRO. An Atlas 5 rocket launched the NROL-41 reconnaissance satellite (http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/spy-satellite-launch-photos-100921.html) on Sept. 20.

In his address last month, Carlson said that the current plan for NRO satellite missions "is the most aggressive launch campaign that the National Reconnaissance Office has had in 20 years, almost a quarter of a century."

Carlson went on to say that new satellites are vital for the NRO's mission, and are needed to replace older satellites before they fail.

"The other thing I can tell you is these are very important, because they all go to update a constellation which is aging rapidly," Carlson said last month according to an NRO transcript. "We bought most of our satellites for three, five, or eight years, and we're keeping them on orbit for ten, twelve, and up to twenty years."

"Now when I buy something people complain about how expensive it is, but nobody ever complains when it's time to die and it keeps right on ticking," Carlson added. "Some of these guys are like the Energizer bunny and they have really done marvelous work."

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/huge-rocket-launches-secret-spy-satellite-101121.html

Of course, the focus of the article is on the technical merits of this exercise with little attention paid to intent behind this use of taxpayer dollars.

[Libertarian_Guard]

http://i56.tinypic.com/jfje5f.jpg

[Glass]

NASA doesn't seem to have much money but these guys do and their work seems to go unnoticed.

[chad]

i thought "secret" meant there weren't big articles on the internets about it.

[SLV^GLD]

Chad, when you launch the largest satellite in orbit on the largest rockets on the planet it cannot be a secret. The actual purpose of the sat is a secret. The purpose of the article is to openly admit the launch but steer discussion towards the technical feat and not the intent.

[mick silver]

just a new way to keeps a eye on us all

[Cebu_4_2]

Be pretty if it fvcked up and fell into the ocean before christmas.

[Hatha Sunahara]

There is some irony here. The biggest satellite ever launched, and it's secret. Big Brother is watching you.


Hatha

[Gaillo]

Satellites scannned me! :o

[ximmy]

Secret U.S. Spy Satellite Launches Into Orbit on Huge Rocket

they could have diverted attention better if...

Secret U.S. Spy Satellite Launches Into Orbit on the back of Huge Blue-winged Elephant

[Dogman]

Satellites scannned me! :o


I can not say, am bound by agreement until death, but you would be surprised at what sat's can do and see.

[Book]

http://www.stopnowhairloss.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/scalp.jpg

Taliban terrorist from space...lol.

:o

[Gaillo]

Found a link to this information about the satellite on Cryptome.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/new-american-spy-satellite-launching-thursday-101117.html


Essential U.S. Spy Satellite Launching Friday
By Justin Ray


posted: 17 November 2010
06:18 pm ET

This story was updated at 7 a.m. ET, NOv. 18.

One cannot overstate the importance of Friday night's Delta 4-Heavy launch from Cape Canaveral to national security, a mission by the massive rocket that will deploy "the largest satellite in the world" to hear the whispers of evil.

Countdown clocks are targeting a liftoff time of 6:06 p.m. EST (2306 GMT) from the Florida spaceport's Complex 37. The evening's available launch opportunity likely extends upwards of four hours.

The original launch date of Thursday was delayed by 24 hours to fix an issue with ground pyrotechnics that release the big booster at liftoff. See our Mission Status Center for live coverage.

United Launch Alliance's Delta 4-Heavy is America's biggest unmanned rocket currently in service, capable of lofting the largest and heftiest cargos. The mammoth vehicle is created by taking three Common Booster Cores -- the liquid hydrogen-fueled motor that forms a Delta 4-Medium's first stage -- and strapping them together to form a triple-barrel rocket, and then adding an upper stage.

The nighttime blastoff should be visually spectacular, lighting up the Space Coast with three distinct pillars of fire from the main engines trailing more than 200 feet long. Ideal viewing spots include off SR401 at Port Canaveral, along the 528 causeway or on the riverbanks in Titusville.

Thundering eastward across the open Atlantic, the rocket will soar out of sight within a few minutes as it embarks on a multi-hour mission to serve the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, the agency responsible for the country's fleet of intelligence-gathering satellites.

The NRO's diverse spacecraft, including telescope-like observers and communications collectors, uncover looming dangers to the nation and provide surveillance over the world's hot spots.

"Always vigilant, the NRO's eyes and ears give America's policy markers, intelligence analysts, warfighters and homeland security specialists the critical information they need to keep America safe, secure and free," the agency says.

The clandestine payload going up this time, known only by its launch identification number of NROL-32, is widely believed to be an essential eavesdropping spacecraft that requires the powerful lift provided by the Delta 4-Heavy to reach its listening post.

In an address to the Air Force Association conference in September, NRO Director Bruce Carlson, a retired Air Force general, said this rocket launch would carry "the largest satellite in the world on it."

The NRO has flown various types of communication-interceptors since the dawn of the space age, and analysts say it is virtually certain this Delta 4-Heavy is hauling another.

"I believe the payload is the fifth in the series of what we call Mentor spacecraft, a.k.a. Advanced Orion, which gather signals intelligence from inclined geosynchronous orbits. They are among the largest satellites ever deployed," said Ted Molczan, a respected sky-watcher who keeps tabs on orbiting spacecraft. [Photo Gallery: Spotting Spaceships From Earth]

Destined for geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above the planet, this new spacecraft supposedly will unfurl an extremely lightweight but gigantically huge umbrella-like antenna to overhear enemy communications and aid U.S. intelligence.

"The satellite likely consists of sensitive radio receivers and an antenna generally believed to span up to 100 meters (328 feet) to gather electronic intelligence for the National Security Agency," Molczan said.

Observers think the mesh antenna's diameter is the size of a football field, comparable to the International Space Station's remarkable width. That explains why satellite-tracking hobbyists say these Mentor craft are "by far the brightest" in the high-flying geosynchronous orbital perch to see from the ground, outshining conventional television relay birds, weather sentinels and the like.

Although NRO satellites are secretive by nature, the spacecraft are visible by just looking up. Molczan is member of a hobbyist group that routinely finds and watches the craft while monitoring the skies with precision.

But despite the identity of this particular satellite being obvious, exactly where in the geosynchronous belt it will be positioned and what part of the globe it will cover are details that remain hush-hush.

"The upcoming launch may replace one of the older spacecraft in the series, or augment the fleet by occupying a new location in geosynchronous orbit," Molczan said.

Previous Mentor satellites were launched by Titan 4 rockets from Cape Canaveral in 1995, 1998 and 2003, plus the most recent Delta 4-Heavy in early 2009 carried one, according to the satellite-tracking hobbyists.

The craft lineage can be traced to the two Magnum satellites trucked to orbit aboard the space shuttle Discovery during the STS-51C mission in 1985 and STS-33 in 1989, historians have indicated.

An even earlier generation launched in the 1970s using Atlas rockets from the Cape, according to the authoritative Space Page website.

Thursday's rocket launch continues a surge of NRO spy satellite deployments after a lengthy 20-month lull. An Atlas 5 rocket began this ongoing campaign by dispatching a new-generation radar imaging satellite in September from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

The upcoming schedule calls for several more significant launches in the next few months:

* A Delta 4-Heavy rocket for NROL-49 from Vandenberg on Jan. 11
* A Delta 4 rocket for NROL-27 from Cape Canaveral on March 4
* An Atlas 5 for NROL-34 from Vandenberg on March 31

Carlson said "this is the most aggressive launch campaign that the National Reconnaissance Office has had in 20 years, almost a quarter of a century."

"The other thing I can tell you is these are very important, because they all go to update a constellation which is aging rapidly. We bought most of our satellites for three, five, or eight years, and we're keeping them on orbit for ten, twelve, and up to twenty years," Carlson said.

"Now, when I buy something people complain about how expensive it is, but nobody ever complains when it's time to die and it keeps right on ticking. Some of these guys are like the Energizer bunny and they have really done marvelous work.

"We're doing things that were designed to essentially operate during the era of the Soviet Union that are today doing tactical intelligence collection that leads us to actionable intelligence on bad guys every day. Every day. And we're doing it with equipment that's 15, 18, and 20 years old."

[mick silver]

The clandestine payload going up this time, known only by its launch identification number of NROL-32, is widely believed to be an essential eavesdropping spacecraft that requires the powerful lift provided by the Delta 4-Heavy to reach its listening post.