Technology

"We’re trying to be more transparent and share more information," said Chris Scolese, director of the National Reconnaissance Office, in a roundtable with reporters Monday. As more countries and companies launch missions into space, Scolese said the space environment is becoming more congested, contested, and competitive.

"It’s also becoming easier and easier to see what’s going up there," Scolese said. "We want to let people know, to some extent, what our capabilities are."

The NRO has multiple satellites—officials won't say exactly how many—mounted on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket for liftoff at 8:34 am EDT (12:34 UTC) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Their destination is geosynchronous orbit, a belt of satellites positioned more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator.

In geosynchronous orbit, a spacecraft completes one lap around Earth at the same rate as the planet's rotation, giving a satellite a constant view of the same geographic region. That makes geosynchronous orbit a popular location for communications satellites, weather observatories, and platforms to detect the first sign of a missile attack.

The US Space Force and the NRO have numerous satellites in geosynchronous orbit, and the mission poised for liftoff Tuesday will help track potential threats to those multibillion-dollar assets.

“Geosynchronous orbit is far away," Scolese said. "Ground-based systems have a harder time seeing what’s up there. This provides us the capability of being in this same orbit, so that we’re closer to what’s happening up there. It will not be looking at the ground, it will be