{"id":50270,"date":"2024-10-25T17:12:56","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T09:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nrol-167-launch-another-step-in-nro-proliferated-constellation\/"},"modified":"2024-10-25T17:12:56","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T09:12:56","slug":"nrol-167-launch-another-step-in-nro-proliferated-constellation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nrol-167-launch-another-step-in-nro-proliferated-constellation\/","title":{"rendered":"NROL-167 Launch Another Step in NRO Proliferated Constellation"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

The NROL-167 mission launched on a SpaceX<\/strong> Falcon 9 rocket on Thursday from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., is a step toward what the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is calling \u201cthe U.S. government\u2019s largest satellite constellation in history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis mission is the fourth launch of the NRO\u2019s proliferated architecture and signifies the NRO\u2019s increased launch frequency and delivery on orbit for this program,\u201d the agency said of NROL-167.<\/p>\n

By the end of the year, the NRO plans to have put more than 100 satellites into orbit since June 2023, NRO Director Chris Scolese said in August.<\/p>\n

The NRO said that several more \u201cproliferated space architecture\u201d launches are planned before the end of the year, in addition to the four thus far.<\/p>\n

Beside the four \u201cproliferated space architecture\u201d missions, the NRO has had two other launched missions this year \u2014 the NROL-123 research mission aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Wallops Island, Va. on March 21 and NROL-70 from Cape Canaveral aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV heavy rocket on Apr 9 \u2014 Delta\u2019s final mission.<\/p>\n

As part of NRO\u2019s response to \u201ccontested\u201d environments that may include Chinese and Russian anti-satellite weapons and advanced Chinese intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance  satellites, a reduction in launch costs is aiding an NRO move to a proliferated satellite set up in a variety of orbits, Scolese said in August. SpaceX technology has propelled that launch cost reduction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NRO\u2019s next-generation systems will help ensure that the right data is delivered to the right user at the right time, faster than ever before,\u201d the agency said on Thursday. \u201cMore than half a dozen launches supporting NRO\u2019s proliferated architecture are planned for 2024, with additional launches expected through 2028.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NRO said that the first launch of the proliferated space architecture was NROL-146 on May 22 aboard a Falcon 9, followed by the June 28 NROL-186 mission from Vandenberg, and the NROL-113 mission aboard a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg on Sept. 5.<\/p>\n

NRO\u2019s first proliferated architecture launch on May 22nd followed demonstration satellite launches the past few years to verify cost and performance, Troy Meink, principal deputy director of NRO, has said.<\/p>\n

NRO said it\u2019s expanding its space architecture \u2014 which includes government and commercial satellites \u2014 at a faster clip because of the lower launch costs, more launch locations, and lower payload costs.<\/p>\n

This story was first published by Defense Daily<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The NROL-167 mission launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Thursday from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., is a step toward what the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is calling \u201cthe U.S. government\u2019s largest satellite constellation in history.\u201d \u201cThis mission is the fourth launch of the NRO\u2019s proliferated architecture and signifies the NRO\u2019s increased launch frequency and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50270"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}