Topaz 3 (NROL-39, USA 247)

Spacecraft nº:

US spacecraft nº:

Launch data:

Spacecraft data:

Description:

• USA 247 is owned by the National Reconnaissance Office, but government officials do not disclose the identities of the NRO's spacecraft, only saying the payload will serve national security purposes. Independent satellite-watchers believe the spacecraft will join the NRO's fleet of spacecraft with radars to penetrate cloaks of clouds and darkness and reveal what adversaries are doing regardless of weather or time of day.

Mission details:

• The NRO L-39 mission was launched from Vandenberg on Dec 6, 2013. The mission appears to have carried the third TOPAZ radar satellite, which entered a 1075 x 1089 km, 123 degree retrograde orbit around 0732 UTC. The satellite is being tracked by hobbyist observers. The Centaur AV-042 upper stage then made two orbit lowering burns to a 467 x 883 km x 120.5 deg orbit. Attached to AV-042 was GEMSAT, the second NPSCuL cubesat launcher, which ejected 12 cubesats between around 1022 and 1038 UTC.
  • FIREBIRD A and B, two 1.5U cubesats from the Montana Space Grant Consortium to study electron microbursts in the magnetosphere.
  • CUNYSAT, a 1U from the City University of New York's Medgar Evers College, with a GPS ionospheric receiver.
  • MCUBED-2, 1 1U from the University of Michigan with technology experiments. including a low resolution imager.
  • IPEX-CP8, a 1U built by Cal Poly to test systems and algorithms for JPL.
  • ALICE, a 1U from the Air Force Institute of Technology carrying technology experiments.
  • SMDC-ONE C and D (Charlie and David), 3U communications satellites for the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command.
  • Aerocube 5a and 5b, 1.5U technology cubesats for the Aerospace Corporation.
  • SNAP, a 3U cubesat for the SMDC Nanosatellite Program, with an unknown mission.
  • Tacsat-6, a 3U cubesat for SMDC with an unknown mission, probably tactical communications or imaging.