The National Reconnaissance Office, known as the NRO, is an agency of the United States Department of Defense and a member of the United States Intelligence Community that designs, builds, launches and operates the intelligence satellites of the federal government. It provides satellite intelligence to other agencies, including signals intelligence to the National Security Agency, imagery intelligence to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and measurement and signature intelligence to the Defense Intelligence Agency, and is considered one of the big five United States intelligence agencies alongside the CIA, NSA, DIA and NGA. The NRO is headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia, and its existence was classified from its founding in 1961 until 1992.
Facts
Agency TypeU.S. intelligence agency (designs, builds, launches and operates U.S. reconnaissance satellites) 1 Founded YearWikipedia infobox gives the classified establishment order as 25 August 1960; the same article separately states in prose that the NRO existed "from its founding in 1961" until declassification in 1992, a minor internal date inconsistency on the source page itself. HeadquartersChantilly, Virginia, United States 1 Annual BudgetClassified; not disclosed as a separate public line item, funded through the classified National Intelligence Program 1 In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikipedia: National Reconnaissance Office
WikipediaWikipedia lead paragraph, first sentence
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is an agency of the United States Department of Defense and a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community which designs, builds, launches, and operates the intelligence satellites of the U.S. federal government.
Wikipedia infobox, formed field
formed = Established: 25 August 1960 | Declassified: 18 September 1992
Wikipedia body, paragraph 2
The NRO is headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia
Wikipedia body, paragraph on the 1996 commission report
A 1996 bipartisan commission report described the NRO as having by far the largest budget of any intelligence agency, and "virtually no federal workforce"
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