USA-276

USA-276
Spacecraft properties

Names	USA-276 NROL-76

Mission type	Radar imaging / Technology demonstration
Operator	National Reconnaissance Office
COSPAR ID	2017-022A
SATCAT no.	42689


Manufacturer	Bell Aerospace


Start of mission
Launch date	May 1, 2017, 7:15 am EST^[1]
Rocket	Falcon 9 Full Thrust
Launch site	Launch Pad 39A, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, United States
Contractor	SpaceX


Orbital parameters
Regime	Low Earth Orbit^[2]
Inclination	~50°^[2]

USA-276, also known as NROL-76, is a classified spacecraft operated by the National Reconnaissance Office.^[3] Due to being classified, very little information is known about the satellite.^[4]

Background

USA-276 was launched onboard Falcon 9 NROL-76.^[1] The Falcon 9 upper stage that carried USA-276 to its orbit made several close flybys of the ISS.^[4]

References

^ ^a ^b Graham, William (2017), SpaceX Falcon 9 launches first NRO mission with NROL-76, NASA Spaceflight, retrieved January 16, 2024
^ ^a ^b Krebs, Gunter D. (2023), USA 276 (NROL 76), Gunter Space Page, retrieved January 16, 2024
^ Bell, E. (2022), USA 276, NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive, retrieved January 16, 2024
^ ^a ^b Spaceflight101 (2017), Secret NROL-76 Satellite crosses Paths with ISS – Coincidence or Deliberate?, Spaceflight101.com, retrieved January 16, 2024{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

← 2016 Orbital launches in 2017 2018 →
January	TJS-2 Jilin-1 Video-03 Iridium NEXT × 10 TRICOM-1 USA-273 / SBIRS GEO-3 DSN-2 Hispasat AG1
February	Intelsat 32e / SkyBrasil1 , Telkom-3S Cartosat-2D, Al Farabi-1, BGUSAT, DIDO-2, Flock-3p × 88, Lemur-2 × 8 Dragon CRS-10 Progress MS-05
March	USA-274 / Intruder 8 Tiankun-1 Sentinel-2B EchoStar 23 IGS-Radar 5 USA-275 / WGS-9 SES-10
April	Shijian 13 Cygnus CRS OA-7 , (ALTAIR , CXBN-2 , IceCube , SG-Sat , SHARC) Soyuz MS-04 Tianzhou 1, SilkRoad-1
May	USA-276 / NROL-76 Koreasat 7, SGDC-1 GSAT 9 / South Asia Satellite Inmarsat-5 F4 SES-15 "It's a Test" EKS-2
June	QZS-2 ViaSat-2, Eutelsat 172B Dragon CRS-11 (NICER, BRAC Onnesha, GhanaSat-1, Mazaalai, Nigeria EduSat-1) GSAT-19 EchoStar 21 Progress MS-06 HXMT / Insight, ÑuSat 3 ChinaSat 9A Cartosat-2E, Max Valier Sat, Aalto-1, Blue Diamond, Green Diamond, Red Diamond, CICERO-6, COMPASS-2, InflateSail, Lemur-2 × 8, LituanicaSAT-2, ROBUSTA-1B Kosmos 2519 / Nivelir, Kosmos 2521 / Sputnik Inspektor BulgariaSat-1 Iridium NEXT × 10 EuropaSat / Hellas Sat 3, GSAT-17
July	Shijian-18† Intelsat 35e Kanopus-V-IK, Flying Laptop, Flock-2k × 48, Landmapper BC 1, Landmapper BC 2, Lemur-2 × 8 Soyuz MS-05
August	OPTSAT-3000, VENµS Dragon CRS-12, ASTERIA Blagovest 11L TDRS-M Michibiki 3 Formosat-5 ORS-5 IRNSS-1H
September	USA-277 / OTV-5 Amazonas 5 Soyuz MS-06 Kosmos 2522 / GLONASS-M 752 USA-278 / NROL-42 AsiaSat 9 Yaogan-30-01 × 3 Intelsat 37e, BSAT-4a
October	VRSS-2 Iridium NEXT × 10 QZS-4 SES-11 / EchoStar 105 Sentinel-5 Precursor Progress MS-07 USA-279 / Quasar 21 Koreasat 5A SkySat × 6 , Flock-3m × 4
November	BeiDou-3 M1, BeiDou-3 M2 Mohammed VI-A Cygnus CRS OA-8E (Asgardia-1, EcAMSat, Lemur-2 × 8, TechEdSat-6) Fengyun-3D NOAA-20 Jilin-1 Video × 3 Yaogan-30-02 (3 satellites) Meteor-M No.2-1, Landmapper BC 3, Lemur-2 × 10
December	Kosmos 2524 LKW-1 Alcomsat-1 Galileo FOC 15-18 Dragon CRS-13 Soyuz MS-07 GCOM-C, SLATS Iridium NEXT 31–40 Yaogan-30-03 × 3 AngoSat 1
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).

National Reconnaissance Office satellite launches
L-1 L-2 L-3 L-4 L-5 L-6 L-7 L-8 L-9 L-10 L-11 L-12 L-13 L-14 L-15 L-16 L-17 L-18 L-19 L-20 L-21 L-22 L-23 L-24 L-25 L-26 L-27 L-28 L-29 L-30 L-31 L-32 L-33 L-34 L-35 L-36 L-37 L-38 L-39 L-40 L-41 L-42 ... L-45 L-47 L-49 L-55 L-61 L-65 L-66 L-67 L-79

Background

See also

References