List of USA satellites

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This is a list of satellites and spacecraft which have been given USA designations by the United States Air Force. These designations have been applied to most United States military satellites since 1984, and replaced the earlier OPS designation.

Contents

As of June 2022, USA designations have been assigned to 437 space satellites. There is not always a one-to-one mapping between launch vehicles and mission spacecraft. This can occasionally result in gaps when maintaining records that incorrectly make that assumption, such as the "missing" entries for USA-163 (which are, symmetrically, contemporary with confusion over "splitting" spacecraft tracks). [1]

List

See also

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">SpaceX</span> American private spacecraft company

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minotaur I</span> Space launch vehicle

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cygnus (spacecraft)</span> Uncrewed cargo spacecraft developed by Orbital Sciences

Cygnus is an expendable American automated cargo spacecraft designed for International Space Station (ISS) resupply missions. It was initially developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation with financial support from NASA under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. To create Cygnus, Orbital paired a pressurized cargo module, largely based on the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, built by Thales Alenia Space and previously used by the Space Shuttle for ISS resupply, with a service module based on Orbital's GEOStar, a satellite bus. After a successful demonstration flight in 2013, Orbital was chosen to receive a Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract. A larger Enhanced Cygnus was introduced in 2015. Orbital Sciences merged into Orbital ATK in 2015; Northrop Grumman purchased Orbital ATK in 2018 and has continued to operate Cygnus missions. A further enlarged Mission B Cygnus is expected to be introduced in 2025.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orbital ATK</span> American aerospace and defense company

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cygnus NG-10</span> Late 2018 cargo mission to the ISS

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">OmegA</span> Canceled US launch vehicle

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zuma (satellite)</span> Classified United States government satellite

USA-280 was a classified United States government satellite that was launched by SpaceX on 8 January 2018, on the 47th flight of the Falcon 9 rocket. The National Reconnaissance Office was in charge of the Zuma project, though its purpose has not been disclosed. In November 2017, Northrop Grumman stated that the launch "is a monumental responsibility and has taken great care to ensure the most affordable and lowest risk scenario for Zuma." The Wall Street Journal reported that the design was very sensitive to vibration and sudden shocks, and had a development cost approaching US$3.5 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cygnus NG-14</span> 2020 American resupply spaceflight to the ISS

NG-14, previously known as OA-14, was the fifteenth flight of the Northrop Grumman robotic resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its fourteenth flight to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-1) contract with NASA. The mission was launched on 3 October 2020, at 01:16:14 UTC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cygnus NG-15</span> 2021 American resupply spaceflight to the ISS

Cygnus NG-15, previously known as OA-15, was the fifteenth launch of the Northrop Grumman robotic resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its fourteenth flight to the International Space Station (ISS) under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA. The mission launched on 20 February 2021 at 17:36:50 UTC. This is the fourth launch of Cygnus under the CRS-2 contract.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cygnus NG-16</span> 2021 American resupply spaceflight to the ISS

NG-16, previously known as OA-16, was the sixteenth flight of the Northrop Grumman robotic resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its fifteenth flight to the International Space Station (ISS) under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-2) contract with NASA. The mission was launched on 10 August 2021 at 22:01:05 UTC, for a (planned) 90-day mission at the ISS. This was the fifth launch of Cygnus under the CRS-2 contract.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cygnus NG-17</span> 2022 American resupply spaceflight to the ISS

NG-17, previously known as OA-17, was the seventeenth flight of the Northrop Grumman robotic resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its sixteenth flight to the International Space Station (ISS) under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA. The mission launched on 19 February 2022 at 17:40:03 UTC. It was the sixth launch of Cygnus under the CRS-2 contract.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cygnus NG-18</span> 2022 American resupply spaceflight to the ISS

NG-18 was the eighteenth flight of the Northrop Grumman robotic resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its seventeenth flight to the International Space Station (ISS) under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-2) contract with NASA. The mission successfully launched on 7 November 2022 at 10:32:42 UTC. This was the seventh launch of Cygnus under the CRS-2 contract.

References

  1. 1 2 "SeeSat-L - Milstar 5 on OIG". SeeSat-L. 16 January 2002. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  2. ↑ "Stacksat (POGS & SSR / TEX / SCE)". Gunter's Space Page. 25 July 2012. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  3. 1 2 "Stacksat P87-2". Astronautix.com. Archived from the original on 5 October 2012. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  4. ↑ Berger, Brian; March 2015, Mike Gruss 02 (2 March 2015). "20-Year-Old Military Weather Satellite Apparently Exploded in Orbit". Space.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ↑ Gibson, Hillary (14 December 2022). "SpOC officially retires DSCS satellite". Space Operations Command . United States Space Force . Retrieved 2 January 2023.
  6. ↑ Lafleur, Claude (1 October 2004). "Spacecrafts [sic] Launched in 2001" . Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  7. ↑ Graham, William (11 March 2011). "Delta IV dodges upper level winds and launches with NROL-27 satellite". NASASpaceFlight.com. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  8. ↑ "NASA - NSSDC - Spacecraft - Details". National Space Science Data Center . Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  9. 1 2 Erwin, Sandra (14 March 2022). "DoD decommissions two missile-tracking satellites after 12 years in orbit". SpaceNews . Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  10. ↑ "Jonathan's Space Report No. 640". Jonathan McDowell. Archived from the original on 24 March 2012. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  11. ↑ "USA 238". National Space Data Science Center. NASA. Retrieved 24 December 2012.
  12. ↑ "United Launch Alliance Delta IV Successfully Launches Global Positioning System Satellite for the US Air Force". United Launch Alliance. 4 October 2012. Archived from the original on 7 December 2013. Retrieved 24 December 2012.
  13. ↑ "OTV-3". National Space Data Science Center. NASA. Retrieved 24 December 2012.
  14. ↑ Gruss, Mike (25 July 2016). "U.S. Air Force blames power failure for loss of DMSP-F19 weather satellite". SpaceNews.
  15. ↑ "CLIO Atlas V Mission Overview" (PDF). United Launch Alliance. 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  16. ↑ Berger, Eric (8 January 2018). "It's not official, but sources say the secretive Zuma satellite was lost". Ars Technica . Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  17. ↑ Pasztor, Andy (9 April 2018). "Probes Point to Northrop Grumman Errors in January Spy-Satellite Failure". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  18. ↑ Sheetz, Michael (9 April 2018). "Northrop Grumman, not SpaceX, reported to be at fault for loss of top-secret Zuma satellite". Yahoo! Finance. CNBC. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
  19. ↑ Grush, Loren (9 January 2018). "Did SpaceX's secret Zuma mission actually fail?". The Verge . Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  20. ↑ "Exclusive: Musk's SpaceX is building spy satellite network for US intelligence agency, sources say". Reuters. 16 March 2023.
  21. ↑ "Exclusive: Musk's SpaceX is building spy satellite network for US intelligence agency, sources say". Reuters. 16 March 2023.
  22. ↑ Jonathan McDowell [@planet4589] (21 August 2022). "Space-Track has cataloged USA 337, a new payload (presumably 100 kg ESPASat class) ejected from the USSF 12 Ring spacecraft launched on Jul 1 to near-synchronous orbit. However, the orbital elements are currently secret. Catalog is 53521 (2022-073E)" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  23. ↑ "USN support of the geosynchronous test spacecraft USUVL from USN's Hawaiian earth station". U.S. Space Force. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
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