NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. \u2014 One of America\u2019s most secretive spy agencies is wrestling with an embarrassment of riches, and it needs AI to help. <\/p>\n
The National Reconaissance Office<\/a> now has so many satellites in orbit \u2014 especially in its new and rapidly growing \u201cproliferated Low Earth Orbit<\/a>\u201d (pLEO) constellation \u2014 that traditional, labor-intensive ground control can\u2019t efficiently manage them all, said NRO director Chris Scolese<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to use the benefits of artificial intelligence \u2026 to control our constellations, to make it a lot easier for the user,\u201d Scolese told the INSA-AFCEA Intelligence & National Security Summit<\/a> here.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 24 to 30 months \u2026 we\u2019ve launched over 200<\/a> satellites,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be launching several more, hopefully on Monday\u201d \u2014 weather delays have made the schedule somewhat uncertain \u2014 \u201cand then we have more yet to go this year.\u201d<\/p>\n That 200 figure includes large numbers of pLEO birds but also many other types, including research satellites testing new AI and autonomy technologies on orbit.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re on a couple of satellites called Big Impact that are testing autonomous operations of space systems, where they can make decisions,\u201d Scolese said.<\/p>\n There\u2019s little public information on Big Impact, and Scolese didn\u2019t dive in further. But in July remarks [PDF<\/a>] to the Potomac Officers Club<\/a>, NRO\u2019s deputy director<\/a> said that \u201cBIG IMPACT 2\u201d had been launched in the first three months of 2025 and \u201cconsisted of two 6U CubeSats<\/a> that the tested the use of small-scale optics and artificial intelligence applications on-orbit.\u201d<\/p>\n Not all NRO AI is so exotic. As with many other national security agencies, much of its AI growth so far has been in the \u201cback office,\u201d using systems similar or even identical to commercial business software. But the agency is also moving out on more bespoke and secretive applications.<\/p>\n \u201cWe use AI a lot,\u201d Scolese said. \u201cWe use it everywhere, from our personnel systems [to] our financial systems, [but] we also use it to, you know, monitor our constellations and \u2026 to help the user community better use our constellations.\u201d<\/p>\n Historically, each satellite would be individually remote-controlled by human operators on the ground: \u201csatellite X, do this,\u201d as Scolese put it. Where NRO wants to go is to have the ability to ask a question, in plain English, of the satellite constellation as a whole, then have the AI figure out which individual sensors to turn to what angles at what times to capture the necessary data, then combine it into a single, clear report.<\/p>\n For example, he said, a user might say, \u201c\u2018I want to know how many ships are in the Taiwan<\/a> Strait\u2019 \u2026 and then the system could go off and do it.\u201d<\/p>\n A more automated approach has become essential\u00a0for an agency that historically relied on manageably small numbers of large, expensive, and \u201cexquisite\u201d satellites, but which has ridden the boom in commercial space to launch large numbers of smaller, cheaper birds. More satellites gives more options to track more targets at once, study high-priority points of interest from multiple angles over longer times, and work around the loss of any one satellite to accident, breakdown, or hostile action.<\/p>\n