Wednesday, September 6, 1961: National Reconnaisance Office

From The Washington Post's "Top Secret America" series:

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) was established in September 1961 as a classified agency of the Department of Defense. The existence of the NRO and its mission of overhead (satellite) reconnaissance were declassified in September 1992. Headquartered in Chantilly, Va., the NRO designs, builds and, with the Air Force, operates the nation's reconnaisance satellites, which are the main collection assets for geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) source data. The satellites also provide significant signals intelligence (SIGINT) data.

* More from Washington Post series: @

* Background and relevant documents (from National Security Archive): @

*"Out of the Black: The Declassification of the NRO" (from National Security Archive): @

*"The 16 Members of the U.S. Intelligence Community" (from www.mentalfloss.com): @

* "Space-Based Reconnaissance" (from Army Space Journal): @

* NRO website: @

* More links (from Federation of American Scientists): @

* Post from August 18, 1960: Spy pictures from space: @

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