The Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center (ASOC) coordinated the launch. The ASOC provides total systems level testing of all Atlas rockets, along with testing of all ground and flight support equipment.

The United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint effort of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, developed the Atlas V rocket. The rocket is part of the Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program.

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), a part of the U.S. Department of Defense, is responsible for designing, building, and operating the fleet of space reconnaissance satellites and systems operated by the United States. These spy satellites are used to observe areas of the world that have the potential to cause problems (such as from terrorist activities), plan military operations (such as those in Iraq), and to monitor the Earth’s environment (such as oceanic activities).

The NRO also conducts intelligence-related activities for the national security of the United States. Operated out of its headquarters in Chantilly, Virginia, it works as part of the National Foreign Intelligence Program. The organization consists of about 3,000 people from various sectors of the armed services, Department of Defense (DoD), and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The ocean-surveillance satellites, part of the National Ocean Surveillance System (NOSS), will track possible terrorist activities at sea. The two satellites will fly in a regimented formation within their elliptical orbits above the Earth so that they will be able to precisely determine the positions of ocean-going vessels at different times. This data will be combined with data from 18 other NRO satellites orbiting the Earth, which are spaced apart at six or seven different sections above the Earth’s surface.

The magazine Aviation Week and Space Technology reported in April 2007 that the Atlas rocket would deploy a pair of ocean surveillance satellites. One of its latest reports is “Secret Spaceflight Readied At Cape Canaveral” on June 13, 2007.

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