USA-202

USA-202
Spacecraft properties
USA 202 and Thuraya 2, photographed on 8 December 2010 from the Netherlands.

Mission type	ELINT
Operator	NRO
COSPAR ID	2009-001A
SATCAT no.	33490


Spacecraft type	Orion


Start of mission
Launch date	18 January 2009, 02:47 (2009-01-18UTC02:47Z) UTC
Rocket	Delta IV Heavy
Launch site	Cape Canaveral SLC-37B
Contractor	United Launch Alliance


Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Geosynchronous
Longitude	44° east^[1]
Perigee altitude	35,777 kilometers (22,231 mi)
Apogee altitude	35,809 kilometers (22,251 mi)
Inclination	3.69 degrees
Period	23.93 hours
Epoch	1 January 2014, 15:43:08 UTC^[2]

USA 202,^[3] 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."^[4] The combined cost of the spacecraft and launch vehicle has been estimated to be over US$2 billion.^[4]

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^[5] by The Intercept as part of the Snowden Files.^[6]

Launch

USA-202 was launched from Space Launch Complex 37B at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, on the third flight of a Delta IV Heavy rocket. The launch was originally scheduled for 2005, but was delayed due to a number of issues, and lift-off took place at 02:47 GMT on 18 January 2009.^[7]

References

^ "UCS Satellite Database". Union of Concerned Scientists. 1 September 2013. Archived from the original on 4 January 2014. Retrieved 3 January 2014.
^ Peat, Chris (1 January 2014). "USA 202 - Orbit". Heavens Above. Retrieved 3 January 2014.
^ McDowell, Jonathan. "Issue 605". Jonathan's Space Report. Retrieved 2020-09-01.
^ ^a ^b "NRO Delays Delta IV Heavy Launch". Aviation Week. Dec 10, 2008. Archived from the original on March 22, 2012. Retrieved January 10, 2009.
^ "Documents". The Intercept.
^ "The Space Review: A Nemesis in the Sky: PAN, MENTOR 4". The Space Review.
^ "First ULA Delta IV Heavy NRO Mission Successfully Lifts Off From Cape Canaveral". ULA. Archived from the original on 2009-02-16.

External links

Delta IV Heavy NROL-26 - launch information from ULA.
The USA 202 ORION satellite A technical analysis of the satellite

United States reconnaissance satellites

IMINT

Photographic	KH-1 Corona KH-2 Corona KH-3 Corona KH-4A Corona KH-4B Corona KH-5 Argon KH-6 Lanyard KH-7 Gambit KH-8 Gambit 3 KH-9 Hexagon KH-10 Dorian
Electro-optical	Samos KH-11 Kennen Misty Enhanced Imaging System
Synthetic-aperture radar	Quill Lacrosse FIA
Infrared

SIGINT

Low Earth orbit	GRAB Poppy White Cloud Samos-F
Highly elliptical orbit	Jumpseat Trumpet
Geosynchronous Earth orbit	Canyon Magnum Mentor (Orion) Mercury Rhyolite/Aquacade Vortex

MASINT

Primary mission	FORTE GPS DMSP Vela
Secondary mission	MIDAS DSP SBIRS STSS

Research and
development

Primary mission	MiTEx
Secondary mission

Unknown

USA number	USA-193

v t e NRO launches
L-1 L-2 L-3 L-4 L-5 L-6 L-7 L-8 L-9 L-10 L-11 L-12 L-13 L-14 L-15 L-16 L-17 L-18 L-19 L-20 L-21 L-22 L-23 L-24 L-25 L-26 L-27 L-28 L-29 L-30 L-31 L-32 L-33 L-34 L-35 L-36 L-37 L-38 L-39 L-40 L-41 L-42 ... L-45 L-47 L-49 L-55 L-61 L-65 L-66 L-67 L-79

v t e ← 2008 Orbital launches in 2009 2010 →
January	USA-202 / Orion 6 Ibuki, Kukai, SDS-1, Sohla-1 Koronas-Foton
February	Omid NOAA-19 Progress M-66 Ekspress-AM44, Ekspress MD1 Hot Bird 10, NSS-9, Spirale-A, Spirale-B OCO Telstar 11N Raduga-1
March	Kepler STS-119 (ITS S6) GOCE USA-203 Soyuz TMA-14
April	Eutelsat W2A USA-204 Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 Compass-G2 RISAT-2, ANUSAT SICRAL 1B Yaogan 6 Kosmos 2450
May	USA-205 Progress M-02M STS-125 Herschel, Planck ProtoStar 2 TacSat-3, PharmaSat, AeroCube-3, HawkSat-1, CP6 Meridian 2 Soyuz TMA-15
June	LRO, LCROSS MEASAT-3a GOES 14 Sirius FM-5
July	TerreStar-1 Kosmos 2451, Kosmos 2452, Kosmos 2453 RazakSAT STS-127 (JEM-EF, AggieSat 2, BEVO-1, Castor, Pollux) Kosmos 2454, Sterkh No.11L Progress M-67 DubaiSat-1, Deimos-1, UK-DMC 2, Nanosat-1B, AprizeSat-3, AprizeSat-4
August	AsiaSat 5 USA-206 JCSAT-RA, Optus D3 STSAT-2A STS-128 (Leonardo MPLM) Palapa-D
September	USA-207 / PAN HTV-1 Meteor-M No.1, BLITS, Sterkh-2, SumbandilaSat, UGATUSAT, Universitetsky-Tatyana-2 Nimiq 5 Oceansat-2, Rubin 9.1, Rubin 9.2, BeeSat-1, UWE-2, ITU-pSat1, SwissCube-1 USA-208 / STSS-Demo 1, USA-209 / STSS-Demo 2 Soyuz TMA-16
October	Amazonas-2, COMSATBw-1 WorldView-2 Progress M-03M USA-210 Thor 6, NSS-12
November	SMOS, PROBA-2 Progress M-MIM2 (Poisk) Shijian 11-01 STS-129 (ExPRESS-1, ExPRESS-2) Kosmos 2455 Intelsat 14 Eutelsat W7 IGS Optical 3 Intelsat 15
December	USA-211 Yaogan 7 Kosmos 2456, Kosmos 2457, Kosmos 2458 Yaogan 8, Xi Wang 1 Helios IIB Soyuz TMA-17 DirecTV-12
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Cubesats are smaller. Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).