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Orion 6
Sign in to saveAlso known as NRO Launch 26, NROL-26, L-26, USA-202, RIO 6, Mission 8302
USA 202, previously NRO Launch 26 or NROL-26, is a classified spacecraft which is operated by the United States National Reconnaissance Office. It is an Advanced Orion ELINT satellite. According to Aviation Week, it "fundamentally involves America's biggest, most secret and expensive military spacecraft on board the world's largest rocket." The combined cost of the spacecraft and launch vehicle has been estimated to be over US$2 billion.
Wikidata facts
- Part of
- Orion
- Operator
- National Reconnaissance Office
- Country of origin
- United States
- Significant event
- rocket launch
- Has use
- electronic intelligence
Show 6 more facts
- UTC date of spacecraft launch
- 2009-01-18
- space launch vehicle
- Delta IV Heavy
- start point
- Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 37
- Commons category
- NROL-26
- launch contractor
- United Launch Alliance
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
3 sectionsContents
- Launch
- References
- External links
USA 202, previously NRO Launch 26 or NROL-26, is a classified spacecraft which is operated by the United States National Reconnaissance Office. It is an Advanced Orion ELINT satellite. According to Aviation Week, it "fundamentally involves America's biggest, most secret and expensive military spacecraft on board the world's largest rocket." The combined cost of the spacecraft and launch vehicle has been estimated to be over US$2 billion.
Amateur astronomer observations suspected the satellite was eavesdropping on Thuraya 2 and this was reported to be confirmed by documents released on Sep 9, 2016 by The Intercept as part of the Snowden Files.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Orion 6” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.