{"id":25604,"date":"2020-08-24T20:46:22","date_gmt":"2020-08-24T20:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/08\/24\/nro-set-to-launch-intelligence-satellite-in-the-wee-hours\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:03:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:03:45","slug":"nro-set-to-launch-intelligence-satellite-in-the-wee-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/space\/2020\/08\/24\/nro-set-to-launch-intelligence-satellite-in-the-wee-hours\/","title":{"rendered":"NRO set to launch intelligence satellite in the wee hours"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office is set to launch a new intelligence payload into orbit in the early hours of the morning on Aug. 26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Launch Readiness Review has given the mission \u2014 dubbed NROL-44 \u2014 the \u201cgo,\u201d clearing it for liftoff at 2:16 a.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As of the Aug. 24 announcement, the weather forecast is favorable with a 70 percent chance of acceptable conditions. The launch period on Aug. 26 extends from 1:50 to 6:25 a.m. EDT.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/space\/2020\/08\/07\/spacex-and-ula-win-massive-national-security-launch-contracts\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/37721336822_f40014044a_k.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">SpaceX and ULA win massive national security launch contracts<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The contracts will support more than 30 heavy lift launches planned between fiscal 2022 through 2027.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Charged with developing, procuring and operating America\u2019s intelligence satellites, the NRO does not typically share detailed information about the payloads it launches into orbit. The classified payload arrived in Florida in late July and was integrated with the rocket in early August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The launch will utilize a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket. This will be the eighth time the agency has used a Delta IV Heavy rocket to get payloads on orbit, with the most recent launch taking place in January 2019 for NROL-71.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cULA is proud of the long-standing history of supporting critical national security missions and the continued partnership with our mission partners,\u201d Gary Wentz, ULA vice president of government and commercial programs, said in a statement. \u201cOnly the Delta IV Heavy possesses the capability to deliver this unique mission to orbit due to a combination of heavy lift and the largest flight-proven payload fairing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This will be the NRO\u2019s fourth mission launched this year. The first two missions lifted off from Rocket Lab\u2019s New Zealand launch pad \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c4isrnet.com\/battlefield-tech\/space\/2020\/01\/23\/the-us-will-launch-its-next-spy-satellite-from-new-zealand\/\" target=_blank>the agency\u2019s first launch to take place in that country<\/a> \u2014 using the company\u2019s Electron rocket. A third launch, NROL-129, took place in July. NROL-129 was the agency\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c4isrnet.com\/battlefield-tech\/space\/2020\/07\/15\/national-reconnaissance-office-launches-revolutionary-satellites-from-virginia\/\" target=_blank>first dedicated launch from NASA Wallops Flight Facility<\/a>, and used a Northrop Grumman Minotaur IV rocket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This will be the National Reconnaissance Office&#8217;s fourth launch of 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":25828,"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":23,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[160,163,36,23],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3385],"class_list":["post-25604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-military-space-report","category-newsletters","category-space"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"2GHYRNWDRJFPJMD3V7LUU4M46A","arc_canonical_url":"\/battlefield-tech\/space\/2020\/08\/24\/nro-set-to-launch-intelligence-satellite-in-the-wee-hours\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>NRO set to launch intelligence satellite in the wee hours - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This will be the National Reconnaissance Office&#039;s fourth launch of 2020.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/space\/2020\/08\/24\/nro-set-to-launch-intelligence-satellite-in-the-wee-hours\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NRO set to launch intelligence satellite in the wee hours\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This will be the National Reconnaissance Office&#039;s fourth launch of 2020.\" 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