{"id":10761,"date":"2016-02-15T15:38:03","date_gmt":"2016-02-15T15:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2016\/02\/15\/retrograde-nro-satellite-launched\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T17:21:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T17:21:02","slug":"retrograde-nro-satellite-launched","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/it-networks\/2016\/02\/15\/retrograde-nro-satellite-launched\/","title":{"rendered":"Retrograde NRO satellite launched"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) satellite was successfully launched into orbit Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NROL-45 was launched at 3:40 a.m. PST atop a Delta IV rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The payload is secret, but several space news sites noted that the satellite was launched into an unusual retrograde orbit\u00a0and may be a radar-imaging satellite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Because it is launching from Vandenberg, Wednesday&#8217;s mission can immediately be assumed to be targeting a highly-inclined orbit; lower-inclination trajectories such as geosynchronous orbits cannot be reached from the Western Range as they would require the rocket to overfly the Continental United States,&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/2016\/02\/ula-delta-iv-nrol-45-launch\/\">NASAspaceflight.com noted<\/a>. &#8220;Recent NRO launches from Vandenberg have targeted sun-synchronous orbits for optical imaging, highly elliptical orbits for signals intelligence (SIGINT) satellites and low Earth orbits for ocean surveillance and radar imaging spacecraft.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A National Reconnaissance Office satellite was successfully launched into orbit Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":16,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[8,16,39],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3399],"class_list":["post-10761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c2-comms","category-it-networks","category-satellites"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"5UZECBAUK5CVHFWIYFC74R34SI","arc_canonical_url":"\/it-networks\/2016\/02\/15\/retrograde-nro-satellite-launched\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- 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