The existence of the NRO was declassified on September 18, 1992, by the Deputy Secretary of Defense, as recommended by the Director of Central Intelligence.
In 1985, a New York Times article revealed details on the operations of the NRO.
The first official acknowledgement of NRO was a Senate committee report in October 1973, which inadvertently exposed the existence of the NRO. The NRO was first mentioned by the press in a 1971 New York Times article. Although their early work was highly classified, this group of men went on to extraordinary public accomplishments, including a Secretary of Defense, a Nobel Laureate, a president of MIT, a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Science, a renowned planetary scientist, and more. On August 18, 2000, the National Reconnaissance Office recognized its ten original Founders. NRO missions since 1972 are classified, and portions of many earlier programs remain unavailable to the public. The Lanyard program flew one successful mission. In 1963, the NRO conducted a mapping mission using higher resolution imagery, as part of the " Lanyard" program. From May 1962 to August 1964, the NRO conducted 12 mapping missions as part of the " Argon" system. The last Corona mission (the 145th), was launched May 25, 1972, and this mission's last images were taken May 31, 1972. Individual images covered, on average, an area of about 10 by 120 miles (16 by 193 km). The first imaging resolution was 8 meters, which was improved to 2 meters. The first successful recovery from space (Discoverer XIII) occurred on August 12, 1960, and the first image from space was seen six days later. The Corona system used (sometimes multiple) film capsules dropped by satellites, which were recovered mid-air by military craft. The NRO's first photo reconnaissance satellite program was the Corona program, : 25–28 the existence of which was declassified February 24, 1995, and which existed from August 1960 to May 1972 (although the first test flight occurred on February 28, 1959). Eisenhower during a special National Security Council meeting, and the agency was to coordinate the USAF and CIA's (and later the navy and NSA's) reconnaissance activities. : 23 The formation was based on a 25 August 1960 recommendation to President Dwight D. The NRO was established on August 25, 1960, after management problems and insufficient progress with the USAF satellite reconnaissance program (see SAMOS and MIDAS). See also: Chronology of the National Reconnaissance Office The NRO works closely with its intelligence and space partners, which include the National Security Agency (NSA), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the United States Strategic Command, the United States Space Command, Naval Research Laboratory, and other agencies and organizations. The agency is part of the Department of Defense. It is funded through the National Reconnaissance Program, which is part of the National Intelligence Program (formerly known as the National Foreign Intelligence Program).
The NRO also coordinates collection and analysis of information from airplane and satellite reconnaissance by the military services and the Central Intelligence Agency. The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) develops, builds, launches, and operates space reconnaissance systems and conducts intelligence-related activities for U.S. 3.4 Coordination with USSPACECOM and USSF.A 1996 bipartisan commission report described the NRO as having by far the largest budget of any intelligence agency, and "virtually no federal workforce", accomplishing most of its work through "tens of thousands" of defense contractor personnel. The NRO's federal workforce is a hybrid organization consisting of some 3,000 personnel including NRO cadre, Air Force, Army, CIA, NGA, NSA, Navy and US Space Force personnel. The Director of the NRO reports to both the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of Defense. The NRO is headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia, 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the Washington Dulles International Airport. NRO is considered, along with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security Agency (NSA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), to be one of the "big five" U.S. federal government, and provides satellite intelligence to several government agencies, particularly signals intelligence (SIGINT) to the NSA, imagery intelligence (IMINT) to the NGA, and measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT) to the DIA. 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.