The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has begun transitioning its new proliferated constellation of surveillance and intelligence-gathering satellites from its initial demonstration phase to actual operational use, according to NRO Director Chris Scolese.
Since June 2023, NRO has put more than 100 payloads into orbit to launch the first phase of its operational proliferated constellation of spy satellites – with mission NROL 146 the first of six planned launches – to enhance the military’s ability to gather space-based intelligence.
“From last June to December of this year, we’ll have probably launched 100 satellites. So we are going from the demo phase to the operational phase, where we’re really going to be able to start testing all of this stuff out in a more operational way,” Scolese said on Oct. 3 at an event hosted Center for Strategic & International Studies.
The goal of the proliferated constellation is to improve the NRO’s capability to repeatedly capture images of a location over time and deliver that intelligence directly to warfighters.
“It allows us to provide the information at a very high rate of speed and deliver it directly to the user,” he said.
Advances to the constellation are being driven by partnerships with the commercial sector, particularly the commercial space industry and its ability to produce hundreds of satellites at significantly lower costs. According to Scolese, the NRO can utilize these commercial space vehicles for its missions by outfitting them with additional military-specific sensors and systems.
Additionally, as the number of satellites in orbit expands, the technology for processing data is also growing. The office is using artificial intelligence and machine learning, while also beginning to develop on-orbit processing of data and even exploring the use of quantum sensing.
“When it comes to tasking the satellites, asking them what to do and figuring out which satellite is the best one to do it, or which combination is, that’s where we’re taking advantage of advanced processing techniques, [and] some of the techniques in artificial intelligence and machine learning, to do that,” Scolese said.
NRO’s advanced technology group and its new Space Reconnaissance Lab, as well as other partnerships with academia, are pursuing those opportunities, he said.
