Lacrosse (satellite)

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Lacrosse satellite under construction

Lacrosse (also onyx ) is the name for a series of military reconnaissance satellites of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) of the USA . The satellites have Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), similar to the system used on the civilian space probe Magellan , to acquire images regardless of the time of day or cloudiness. The resolution of this SAR radar is 50 cm. The US company Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Colorado is the manufacturer of the lacrosse onyx satellites .

Start list

To date, five satellites have been launched, of which only Lacrosse 5 is still in orbit:

Surname USA designation begin Launcher Launch site Track height Orbit inclination Remarks
Lacrosse 1 USA-34 2nd December 1988 Space Shuttle
( STS-27 ) 		KSC , LC-39B 437-447 km 57.0 ° Re-entry into the earth's atmosphere in March 1997.
Lacrosse 2 USA-69 March 8, 1991 Titan IV A VAFB , SLC-4E 640-645 km 68.0 ° Orbit height of the rocket upper stage was 420-662 km.
Lacrosse 3
( NROL-2 ) 		USA-133 December 20, 1996,

18:04

Titan IVA VAFB , SLC-4E 650-660 km 57.0 ° Orbit time 98.53 min; Replacement satellite for Lacrosse 1
Lacrosse 4
( NROL-11 ) 		USA-152 August 17, 2000,

23:45

Titan IV B VAFB , SLC-4E 675–680 km (or 689–695 km) 68.0 ° Mass probably 16 tons; Moonwatch amateur observers reported two small orbit maneuvers of the second rocket stage from originally 572–675 km and 68.0 ° orbit inclination to 681–695 km and 68.1 ° on August 23, 2000.
Lacrosse 5
( NROL-16 ) 		USA-182 April 30, 2005,

00:50

Titan IVB CC , LC-40 710-720 km 57.0 ° Orbit height of the rocket upper stage was 481–705 km.

The two satellites with 68 ° inclination had a clear view of the earth's poles due to their altitude of 640 and 680 km respectively .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christian Mass, et al .: SAT espionage for insiders - making secret SAT signals visible, audible and readable. Franzis, Poing 2005, ISBN 3-7723-5308-8 , p. 22.