Lockheed Martin Atlas IIAS NROL-13 (Intruder 5A & 5B)
Atlas IIAS
Status
Success
Date
8 SEP 2001
15:25
Mission Overview
NOSS-3 (Naval Ocean Surveillance System), which is likely not the official designation, is the third generation of NOSS satellites, which are low orbit SIGINT satellites. In 2013, the designation Intruder leaked out. These satellites carry equipment to track ships and aircraft via their radio transmissions. Positions of the origin of the transmissions are determined by triangulation. Each launch consists of two satellites of similar size in the same orbit. Both satellites maneuver to stationkeep relative to one another.
Rocket
Atlas IIAS
Mission Type
Government/Top Secret
Orbit
Low Earth Orbit
Stages
3
Livestream
Not availableRocket Details
Atlas II was a member of the Atlas family of launch vehicles, which evolved from the successful Atlas missile program of the 1950s. It was designed to launch payloads into low earth orbit, geosynchronous transfer orbit or geosynchronous orbit. Sixty-three launches of the Atlas II, IIA and IIAS models were carried out between 1991 and 2004; all sixty-three launches were successes, making the Atlas II the most reliable launch system in history.
Height
47.54 m
Diameter
3.04 m
Launch Mass
204 T
Thrust
4,391 kN