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February 1, 2026<\/p>\n
1 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n U.S. quietly declassifies Cold\u2013War era \u2018JUMPSEAT\u2019 surveillance satellites<\/p>\n The National Reconnaissance Office has now declassified a satellite program used to spy on America\u2019s adversaries<\/p>\n By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron<\/span><\/p>\n National Reconnaissance Office<\/p>\n Some forty years ago, the U.S. launched a series of secret satellites, designed to spy on the country\u2019s adversaries.<\/p>\n Launched between March 1971 and February 1987, those satellite missions, nicknamed \u201cJUMPSEAT,\u201d were declassified by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).<\/p>\n The NRO and the U.S. Airforce developed the satellites together to boost the U.S. government\u2019s \u201cspace intelligence portfolio,\u201d with a view to monitoring \u201cadversarial offensive and defensive weapon system development,\u201d according to the NRO. It\u2019s unclear what, exactly, the JUMPSEAT satellites were monitoring.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n \u201cThe historical significance of JUMPSEAT cannot be understated,\u201d said James Outzen, NRO director of the Center for the Study of National Reconnaissance, in the same statement. \u201cIts orbit provided the U.S. a new vantage point for the collection of unique and critical signals intelligence from space.\u201d<\/p>\n National Reconnaissance Office<\/p>\n The first JUMPSEAT mission launched in 1971 from a military base near Santa Barbara, California, and provided information to the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Security Agency, among other national security bodies.<\/p>\n According to a December memo signed by the NRO director Christopher Scolese, the JUMPSEAT satellites performed \u201cadmirably,\u201d but were decommissioned in 2006. Declassifying the missions, he said, would pose little risk to \u201ccurrent and future satellite systems.\u201d<\/p>\n More detailed information about what the satellites did may be coming in future. \u201cAfter limited declassification,\u201d Scolese wrote in the memo, \u201cwe will evaluate the program for a more complete programmatic declassification as time and resources permit.\u201d<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" February 1, 2026 1 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm U.S. quietly declassifies Cold\u2013War era \u2018JUMPSEAT\u2019 surveillance satellites The National Reconnaissance Office has now declassified a satellite program used to spy on America\u2019s adversaries By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron National Reconnaissance Office Some forty years ago, the U.S. launched a series<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[22706,22705,6338,22707,554,15519,8034,811],"class_list":{"0":"post-43405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-coldwar","9":"tag-declassifies","10":"tag-era","11":"tag-jumpseat","12":"tag-quietly","13":"tag-satellites","14":"tag-surveillance","15":"tag-u-s"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
It\u2019s Time to Stand Up for Science<\/h2>\n