The National Reconnaissance Office says the 'Silent Barker' satellites will keep tabs on potentially threatening adversary spacecraft.
By William HarwoodA United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket blasted off and boosted multiple National Reconnaissance Office satellites into space Sunday to keep tabs on the behavior of potential enemy spacecraft in the high orbit favored by spy satellites, communications stations and other high-priority U.S. assets.
Along with tracking routine satellite movements,"we also want to know if there is something going on that is unexpected, or shouldn't be going on that could potentially represent a threat to a high-value asset, either ours or one of our allies," Scolese said. While the general purpose of the NROL-107 payload was openly discussed by the NRO, details about the ascent and the orbital parameters of the Silent Barker satellites were classified. As a result, ULA ended its launch commentary as the rocket's first stage was finishing it's"burn" and no other details about the flight were immediately available.
The secretive NRO seldom discusses its payloads, but in the case of Silent Barker, officials said they wanted potential adversaries to understand America's ability to keep tabs on any such threats to in the so-called"geo belt," which is difficult to monitor from Earth's surface given the distances involved and the vagaries of weather and lighting.
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