NRO L-21
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USA-193, also known as NRO Launch 21 (NROL-21 or simply L-21), was a United States military
reconnaissance satellite A reconnaissance satellite or intelligence satellite (commonly, although unofficially, referred to as a spy satellite) is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications. The ...
(
radar imaging Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), direction (geometry), direction (azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to det ...
) launched on 14 December 2006. It was the first launch conducted by the
United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance, LLC (ULA) is an American launch service provider formed in December 2006 as a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Space and Boeing Defense, Space & Security. The company designs, assembles, sells and launches rockets ...
(ULA). Owned by the
National Reconnaissance Office The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is a member of the United States Intelligence Community and an agency of the United States Department of Defense which designs, builds, launches, and operates the reconnaissance satellites of the U.S. f ...
(NRO), the craft's precise function and purpose were
classified Classified may refer to: General *Classified information, material that a government body deems to be sensitive *Classified advertising or "classifieds" Music *Classified (rapper) (born 1977), Canadian rapper * The Classified, a 1980s American ro ...
. On 21 February 2008, it was destroyed as a result of Operation Burnt Frost.


Design

USA-193 was part of the NRO's
Future Imagery Architecture Future Imagery Architecture (FIA) was a program awarded to Boeing to design a new generation of optical and radar imaging US reconnaissance satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). In 2005 NRO director Donald Kerr recommended t ...
(FIA), which was begun in 1997 to produce a fleet of inexpensive reconnaissance satellites, but has become the agency's most spectacular failure. USA-193 was initially developed by
Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...
, which won the contract in 1999, beating out
Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...
with proposals for innovative electro-optics and radar. But after cost overruns, delays, and parts failures, NRO sent the contract to Lockheed, which built USA-193 around the Boeing radar design. Lockheed Martin and Boeing both supported the launch, the first in the joint effort known as the
United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance, LLC (ULA) is an American launch service provider formed in December 2006 as a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Space and Boeing Defense, Space & Security. The company designs, assembles, sells and launches rockets ...
. USA-193 weighed about , with a body thought to be long and wide, estimates based on the maximal Delta II payload. With the radar antenna extended, USA-193 was about the size of a basketball court (~30 × 15 m).


Launch data

* Launch: 14 December 2006 at 21:00:00 UTC * Launch vehicle:
United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance, LLC (ULA) is an American launch service provider formed in December 2006 as a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Space and Boeing Defense, Space & Security. The company designs, assembles, sells and launches rockets ...
Delta II-7920 launch vehicle * Launch site:
Vandenberg Air Force Base Vandenberg may refer to: * Vandenberg (surname), including a list of people with the name * USNS ''General Hoyt S. Vandenberg'' (T-AGM-10), transport ship in the United States Navy, sank as an artificial reef in Key West, Florida * Vandenberg S ...
,
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
, United States * Launch facility: Space Launch Complex 2W * Orbit data: not officially available, as spy satellites often change position and do not have regular orbits. Reported by amateur observers to be (
perigee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. The line of apsides (also called apse line, or major axis of the orbit) is the line connecting the two extreme values. Apsides perta ...
,
apogee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. The line of apsides (also called apse line, or major axis of the orbit) is the line connecting the two extreme values. Apsides perta ...
,
inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Eart ...
): ** 349 km × 365 km × 58.48° after launch, ** 255 km × 268 km × 58.48° on 11 February 2008, ** 244 km × 261 km × 58.50° on 19 February 2008. ** The orbit was decaying at an increasing rate.


Malfunction and orbital decay

The satellite entered orbit, but lost contact with the ground within hours. In late January 2008, reports from anonymous U.S. officials indicated a U.S. spy satellite, later confirmed as USA-193, was in a deteriorating orbit and was expected to crash into
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
within weeks. This came as no surprise to amateur satellite watchers, who had been predicting the deorbit of the satellite for some time. The satellite malfunctioned shortly after deployment and was intentionally destroyed 14 months later on 21 February 2008 by a modified
SM-3 The RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) is a ship-based surface-to-air missile used by the United States Navy to intercept ballistic missiles as a part of Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System. Although primarily designed as an anti-ballistic mis ...
missile fired from the U.S. Navy warship USS ''Lake Erie'' (CG-70), stationed west of
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
. The event highlighted growing distrust between the U.S. and China, and was viewed by some to be part of a wider "arms race" in space involving the U.S., China, and Russia. It was the first launch by
United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance, LLC (ULA) is an American launch service provider formed in December 2006 as a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Space and Boeing Defense, Space & Security. The company designs, assembles, sells and launches rockets ...
since it was formed in December 2006, and the first
Delta II Delta II was an expendable launch system, originally designed and built by McDonnell Douglas, and sometimes known as the Thorad Delta 1. Delta II was part of the Delta rocket family, derived directly from the Delta 3000, and entered service in ...
launch since ULA acquisition.


Hazardous materials on-board

The
Federal Emergency Management Agency The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Exec ...
(FEMA) reports indicate that the satellite contained the
hazardous material Dangerous goods are substances that are a risk to health, safety, property or the Natural environment, environment during transport. Certain dangerous goods that pose risks even when not being transported are known as hazardous materials (syll ...
s
hydrazine Hydrazine is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a simple pnictogen hydride, and is a colourless flammable liquid with an ammonia-like odour. Hydrazine is highly hazardous unless handled in solution as, for example, hydraz ...
and
beryllium Beryllium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Be and atomic number 4. It is a steel-gray, hard, strong, lightweight and brittle alkaline earth metal. It is a divalent element that occurs naturally only in combination with ...
. Though there was some speculation that the satellite might have a "nuclear" power core, i.e. a
radioisotope thermoelectric generator A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG, RITEG), or radioisotope power system (RPS), is a type of nuclear battery that uses an array of thermocouples to convert the Decay heat, heat released by the decay of a suitable radioactive material i ...
(RTG), the FEMA report indicates otherwise. On 29 January 2008, an
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
story quoted
U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 ...
General Gene Renuart as saying that contingency plans were being made, since intact pieces of the satellite "might re-enter into the North American area". In respecting the
Space Liability Convention The Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects, also known as the Space Liability Convention, is a treaty from 1972 that expands on the liability rules created in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. In 1978, the crash o ...
, the United States vowed to pay for any damage or destruction caused by their failed satellite.


Destruction

Planning for the destruction of USA-193 with a missile reportedly began on 4 January 2008, with President Bush approving the plan on 12 February 2008, at an expected cost of US$40 million to US$60 million. The task force had as its goal to "rupture the fuel tank to dissipate the approximately of hydrazine, a hazardous fuel, which could pose a danger to people on
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
, before it entered into Earth's atmosphere". On 14 February 2008, U.S. officials announced the plan to destroy USA-193 before
atmospheric reentry Atmospheric entry (sometimes listed as Vimpact or Ventry) is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. Atmospheric entry may be ''uncontrolled entry ...
, stating that the intention was "saving or reducing injury to human life". They said that if the hydrazine tank fell to Earth, it "could spread a toxic cloud roughly the size of two football fields". General
James Cartwright James Edward "Hoss" Cartwright (born September 22, 1949) is a retired United States Marine Corps General (United States), general who last served as the eighth vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from August 31, 2007, to August 3, 2011. H ...
confirmed that the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
was preparing to launch an SM-3 missile to destroy the satellite, at an altitude of , shortly before it entered Earth's atmosphere. On 21 February 2008, at 03:26
UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...
an SM-3 missile was fired from the ''Ticonderoga''-class missile cruiser and intercepted USA-193 about above the
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
. The satellite was traveling with a velocity of , or . The velocity of the impact was about . The
United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and superv ...
(DoD) expressed a "high degree of confidence" that the fuel tank was hit and destroyed. The satellite's remnants were expected to burn up over the course of the next 40 days, with most of the satellite's mass re-entering the atmosphere within 48 hours of the missile strike. U.S. officials denied that the action was intended to prevent sensitive technology falling into foreign hands and also denied that it was a response to the
2007 Chinese anti-satellite missile test On 11 January 2007, China conducted an anti-satellite missile test. A Chinese weather satellite—the FY-1C (COSPAR 1999-025A) polar orbit satellite of the Fengyun series, at an altitude of , with a mass of —was destroyed by a kinetic kill ...
. This was not the first time the United States shot down one of its own satellites; the Air Force had shot down a satellite in 1985. Although the U.S. had objected to the earlier Chinese test of an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon, U.S. officials said there was "no parallel" with that test. The Chinese test destroyed a target in a high, stable orbit, leaving a large amount of
space debris Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash, space garbage, or cosmic debris) are defunct human-made objects in spaceprincipally in Earth orbitwhich no longer serve a useful function. These include dere ...
in orbit, while the destruction of USA-193 in a much lower orbit would create debris that would likely deorbit within weeks.


Controversy

The Russian government claimed that this exercise was a test of the U.S. missile defense program. The defense ministry of Russia accused the U.S. of using hydrazine as a cover for the test of an ASAT. It also noted that extraordinary measures had never before been needed to deal with the many spacecraft that had fallen to Earth. Indeed, ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' had paraphrased Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the
United States National Security Council The United States National Security Council (NSC) is the national security council used by the president of the United States for consideration of national security, military, and Foreign relations of the United States, foreign policy matter ...
, as stating that 328 objects had deorbited (controlled and uncontrolled) in the previous five-year period. However, U.S. officials maintained that the large quantity of hydrazine on board made USA-193 a special case. According to General Kevin P. Chilton, when President Bush was briefed on the situation, the danger that shooting down the satellite would be perceived as an ASAT test was brought up, and President Bush made his decision based on the dangers of an uncontrolled reentry. Other observers dismiss the threat of the hydrazine, suggesting that the effect of the cloud, when diluted over a large area, would likely be mild: "The hydrazine tank is a 1-meter sphere containing about 400 liters of hydrazine. The stated hazard area is about 2 hectares, something like 1/10,000,000,000 of the area under the orbit. The potential for actual harm is unbelievably small". Other analyses, such as those cited by Yousaf Butt, show the hydrazine tank burning up in the upper atmosphere. Two examples of uncontrolled atmospheric re-entries causing (or almost causing) damage are the 1978 re-entry of
Kosmos 954 Kosmos 954 () was a reconnaissance satellite launched by the Soviet Union in 1977. A malfunction prevented safe separation of its onboard Nuclear reactor technology, nuclear reactor; when the satellite Atmospheric reentry, reentered the Earth's ...
, a Soviet satellite, which landed in Canada and spread dangerous amounts of nuclear fuel from its onboard reactor over large tracts of land, and
Skylab Skylab was the United States' first space station, launched by NASA, occupied for about 24 weeks between May 1973 and February 1974. It was operated by three trios of astronaut crews: Skylab 2, Skylab 3, and Skylab 4. Skylab was constructe ...
's 1979 re-entry, which rattled windows and dropped small pieces of debris onto buildings in Esperance,
Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
(no significant monetary damage resulted, but the U.S. was symbolically fined US$400 for littering). No weapon existed in 1978 to bring down Kosmos 954, and a Soviet anti-satellite weapon (part of the
Istrebitel Sputnikov Istrebitel Sputnikov, or IS (, ИС, meaning "destroyer of satellites"), was a Soviet Union, Soviet anti-satellite weapons programme which led to the deployment of the IS-A or I2P system during the 1970s and 1980s. IS satellites were originally ...
program), the first of its kind, was declared operational only ten days before Skylab re-entered the atmosphere, and was not capable of directing the space station's descent. Before the destruction of USA-193,
Pentagon In geometry, a pentagon () is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple polygon, simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simple or list of self-intersecting polygons, self-intersecting. A self-intersecting ...
officials repeatedly denied that it was meant to bolster the U.S. missile defense program. Six days after USA-193's destruction, Defense Secretary
Robert M. Gates Robert Michael Gates (born September 25, 1943) is an American intelligence analyst and university president who served as the 22nd United States secretary of defense from 2006 to 2011. He was appointed by President George W. Bush and retained b ...
said, "the mission's success shows that U.S. plans for a missile-defense system are realistic" though in the same statement it was claimed that the weapons and systems used for this mission will not retain their ASAT capability, and will be reconfigured back to their original purpose as tactical missiles.


Space debris

The destruction of USA-193 created 174 pieces of orbital debris that were cataloged by the U.S. military.Data retrieved from the U.S. military's public satellite catalog maintained at While most of this debris re-entered the Earth's atmosphere within a few months, a few pieces lasted slightly longer because they were thrown into higher orbits. The final piece of USA-193 debris (COSPAR 2006-057GH, SATCAT 35425) re-entered on 28 October 2009. The launch of at least one other satellite was postponed to avoid space debris from USA-193. An
Atlas V Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas (rocket family), Atlas launch vehicle family. It was developed by Lockheed Martin and has been operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA) since 2006. Primarily used to ...
launch hot line recording indicated the debris would delay the launch of a different National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) satellite USA-200 (NROL-28) as "a precautionary measure".


Catalogue IDs

* International Designator: 2006-057A *
Satellite Catalog Number The Satellite Catalog Number (SATCAT), also known as NORAD Catalog Number, NORAD ID, USSPACECOM object number, is a sequential nine-digit number assigned by the United States Space Command (USSPACECOM), and previously the North American Aerospac ...
: 29651


Gallery


See also

*
P78-1 P78-1 or Solwind was a United States satellite launched aboard an Atlas F rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on February 24, 1979. The satellite's mission was extended by several weeks, so that it operated until it was destroye ...
, a U.S. satellite in a orbit that was destroyed during a 1985
U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 ...
ASM-135 ASAT The ASM-135 ASAT is an air-launched anti-satellite multistage missile that was developed by Ling-Temco-Vought's LTV Aerospace division. The ASM-135 was carried exclusively by United States Air Force (USAF) F-15 Eagle fighter aircraft. The pro ...
test *
2007 Chinese anti-satellite missile test On 11 January 2007, China conducted an anti-satellite missile test. A Chinese weather satellite—the FY-1C (COSPAR 1999-025A) polar orbit satellite of the Fengyun series, at an altitude of , with a mass of —was destroyed by a kinetic kill ...
*
Anti-satellite weapon Anti-satellite weapons (ASAT) are space weapons designed to incapacitate or destroy satellites for Military strategy, strategic or Military tactics, tactical purposes. Although no ASAT system has been utilized in warfare, a few countries (China, ...
*
Kill vehicle Kill vehicle is a term from space weapon development and science fiction which denotes either a kinetic projectile or an explosive warhead supposed to impact on or (in the case of the warhead) near a target. It is the final missile stage of an inte ...
*
Space debris Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash, space garbage, or cosmic debris) are defunct human-made objects in spaceprincipally in Earth orbitwhich no longer serve a useful function. These include dere ...
*
Space warfare Space warfare is combat in which one or more belligerents are in outer space. The scope of space warfare includes ''ground-to-space warfare'', such as attacking satellites from the Earth; ''space-to-space warfare'', such as satellites attacki ...


References


External links

* * * * * * * {{Orbital launches in 2006 Intentionally destroyed artificial satellites National Reconnaissance Office satellites Spacecraft launched by Delta II rockets Spacecraft launched in 2006 USA satellites Secret space vehicles Satellite collisions