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US Spy Satellite Agency Declassifies High-Flying Cold War Listening Post
The JUMPSEAT satellites operated in Molniya orbits to monitor adversarial weapons and collect critical signals intelligence for U.S. national security from 1971 to 2006.
- On Wednesday , the National Reconnaissance Office declassified the JUMPSEAT program, revealing details and images of eight JUMPSEAT satellites launched between 1971 and 1987.
- The program began as Project EARPOP between the NRO and the U.S. Air Force, with seven additional JUMPSEAT spacecraft launched from Vandenberg in 1971–1987.
- The Molniya orbit design—63° inclination and apogee roughly 24,855 miles—allowed JUMPSEAT satellites to loiter over the Arctic, Russia, Canada, and Greenland for most of their 12‑hour orbit while intercepting electronic emissions.
- The NRO described Jumpseat as its first-generation HEO signals-collection system, with intercepted data routed to the Department of Defense and National Security Agency, and the final spacecraft remained in service until 2006.
- We just learned about the program nearly 40 years after its final launch, and the NRO says many U.S. spy satellites followed Jumpseat as it builds its modern proliferated architecture.
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This week the United States revealed the existence of JUMPSEAT, a pioneering spy satellite program developed during the Cold War, almost four decades after the launch of its last spacecraft into space.
NRO Officially Declassifies JUMPSEAT First Gen Signals Intelligence Satellites
Launched between 1971 and 1987 primarily to collect intelligence data on foreign weapon testing, the last satellites in the JUMPSEAT family were withdrawn from service in 2006. A memorandum dated Dec. 4, 2025 from the office of Christopher J. Scolese, Director of the U.S. National Reconaissance Office (NRO), formally declassified the existence of and some […]
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Total News Sources11
Leaning Left1Leaning Right1Center2Last UpdatedBias Distribution50% Center
Bias Distribution
- 50% of the sources are Center
50% Center
L 25%
C 50%
R 25%
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