The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) recently quietly declassified a Cold War-era satellite program used to spy on the Soviet Union’s military communication signals.
JUMPSEAT, was the U.S.’ first-generation, highly elliptical orbit (HEO) signals-collection satellite and was launched from 1971 to 1987, according to a Jan. 28 NRO news release. The satellite was developed by the US Air Force’s (USAF) program at the NRO.
“The historical significance of JUMPSEAT cannot be understated,” Dr. James Outzen, NRO’s director of the Center for the Study of National Reconnaissance, said in a statement. “Its orbit provided the U.S. a new vantage point for the collection of unique and critical signals intelligence from space.”
Created as part of a program dubbed “Project EARPOP,” JUMPSEAT was intended to allow the U.S. government to collect intelligence amid escalating Cold War tensions, according to the news release.
The NRO and the USAF launched the first JUMPSEAT mission in 1971 from Vandenberg Space Force Base — previously known as Vandenberg Air Force Base — in Santa Barbara County, California, according to the press release. JUMPSEAT was able to successfully collect electronic emissions and signals, communication intelligence and foreign instrumentation intelligence.
This data was later provided to the Defense Department and the National Security Agency (NSA), among other national security elements, per the news release.
Moreover, NRO Director Chris Scolese wrote in a Dec. 5, 2025 memo that he had concluded “publicly acknowledging limited facts will not cause harm to our current and future satellite systems. He added “acknowledging” the satellite program is “consistent with our obligation to the American public to be both open and transparent where possible through declassification of historic programs.”
The NRO’s JUMPSEAT program has been in the public domain since the 1980s, but specific details about the program remained largely unknown until recently, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported Monday.
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