2009-001A
NROL-26 Delta IVH launch from Canaveral with NRO geostationary Advanced Orion signals intelligence sat.
The UN registration gave a standard geostationary transfer orbit, although it is believed the second stage restarted at the apogee of this orbit.
Cleary's 2009 Cape EELV history reported three burns with a descending node transfer orbit and separation after 6 hours.
The satellite settled into GEO at 44E and began to shadow the Thuraya 2 satellite.
Documents leaked to theintercept.com in 2016 revealed that the satellite was controlled by Alice Springs for on orbit checkout and a drift survey of CHinese microwave emitters, and then controlled operationally by Menwith Hill Station (MHS) for a primary mission observing Afghanistan and Pakistan and intercepting data from Thuraya 2.
| NROL-26 | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 Jan 18 | 0247:00 | Launch by Delta IVH | CC SLC37 |
| 3 x RS-68 burn | |||
| T+0:50 CBC throttle down | |||
| T+1:23 Max Q | |||
| T+3:55 CBC strapon throtle down | |||
| T+4:03 CBC shutdown | |||
| T+4:06 Strapon CBC sep | |||
| T+5:33 MECO 78smi alt | |||
| T+5:41 Stage 1 sep | |||
| T+5:54 SES-1 158 km? | |||
| 0253 | T+6:57 Fairing sep | ||
| 0259 | T+12:55? SECO-1 | 200 x 1600? x 29? | |
| 0402? | T+1:15? SES-2 | ||
| 0409? | T+1:22? SECO-2 | 271 x 35946 x 26.7 (UN) | |
| 0857? | T+6:10? SES-3 | ||
| 0900? | T+6:13? SECO-3 | 35870 x 35870 x 0? | |
| 0907? | T+6:20? Stage 2 sep | ||
| 2009 Feb 15 | 1438.10 35715 x 35936 x 2.3 GEO 83.0E +0.5W/ | ||
| 2009 Apr 28 | On station | 1436.12 35749 x 35825 x 2.9 GEO 44.2E | |
| 2016 Aug 6 | 1436.12 35735 x 35838 x 4.6 GEO 44.0E | ||
