national reconnaissance office

SpaceX is working with the National Reconnaissance Office to build a classified system of swarming spy satellites, according to a report published by Reuters. And while the $1.8 billion contract was reportedly signed in 2021, news of the program’s ties to NRO just leaked on Saturday—a great reminder that it’s entirely possible for some tech companies to do highly classified work for years without the public learning about it.Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their View The new satellite…

Image: Photo-illustration by GizmodoOn November 15, 2021, a Russian missile smashed into the defunct satellite Kosmos-1408, creating a cloud of debris that threatened astronauts aboard the International Space Station. That same day, a tweet from the 18th Space Defense Squadron—an arm of the U.S. Space Force—acknowledged the incident, saying it was tracking some 1,500 pieces associated with the event.The 18th Space Defense Squadron (18 SDS), located at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, manages the nation’s Space…

Blue Origin launched six crew members on a suborbital flight, including the first Egyptian and Portuguese nationals to make it to space.Photo: Blue OriginWe are in the midst of a major shift in spaceflight, made possible by increasingly affordable rocket launches and satellites. As a result, the space above us is buzzing with rockets, satellites, astronauts, and of course, space tourists.Thursday August 4 marked an exceptionally active day for the space industry with six launches to space, with each marking different…

A US intelligence agency said Wednesday that its newest spy satellite successfully launched into orbit atop a reusable SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.The SpaceX rocket took off at 12:27 pm local time (01:57am IST on February 3) from the Vandenberg Air Force base in California, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which is in charge of the US Space Force, said in a statement.After releasing the satellite, dubbed NROL-87, into orbit, the Falcon 9 rocket then landed back at the base, the agency said."NROL-87 is designed, built,…