National Reconnaissance Office 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Release #7-23 

Aug. 8, 2023 

Office of Public Affairs 

Contact: 703-808-1198

NRO participates in 37th SmallSat Conference:

Proliferated architecture, technology development and responsive space featured

CHANTILLY, Va. – The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is engaging with industry, 

mission partners and academia this week at the 37th annual Small Satellite Conference (SmallSat) 

at Utah State University in Logan, Utah.

NRO’s Advanced Science and Technology deputy director, Col. Matthew Allen, delivered 

remarks during SmallSat’s Future Directions technical session today, underscoring the 

organization’s efforts to discover, and then mature, the technologies that enable the intelligence 

advantage provided by NRO systems. The technical session featured thought leader perspectives 

on the realm of what’s possible for future space mission architectures. Col. Allen was joined by 

representatives from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the National 

Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. 

Allen emphasized NRO’s efforts to take advantage of technology scalability to deliver both 

evolutionary and revolutionary capabilities faster, cheaper and with less risk. 

“At the NRO, we’re keeping an eye out to find those truly disruptive technologies that are going 

to be game changers,” he said. “We want to partner with other government agencies, other 

nations, academia and the private sector, and work together from design to execution to get that 

technology into space.”

NRO is building the largest and most capable overhead constellation in its history, with the 

number of satellites on orbit expected to quadruple by the end of the decade. Innovation–from the 

ground to orbit to everywhere in between–is at the core of NRO’s progress. Col. Allen 

highlighted an upcoming demonstration mission with industry partners Firefly Aerospace, Inc., 

and Xtenti, LLC, as an example of responsive delivery of capabilities to orbit. The demonstration

mission is part of an NRO follow-on study contract that will examine in-space mobility and 

multiple vehicle deployment capabilities. The mission, featuring Xtenti’s Flight Agnostic Noninterfering, Tunable Mass Rideshare Dispenser Equipment (FANTM-RiDE) dispenser, is 

scheduled to launch next year on board Firefly’s Elytra vehicle. Stay tuned to NRO’s social 

media channels in the coming months for more information about this demonstration project. 

NRO also joined the U.S. Space Force and industry partners in a SmallSat Side Meeting focused 

on innovative methods for identifying and categorizing on-orbit satellites–a strategy to ensure the 

safety and sustainability of space operations in low-earth orbit.

NRO is available at booth #72 at the SmallSat conference exhibition hall. For more information, 

visit NRO.gov. 
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The NRO develops, acquires, launches, and operates the world’s best intelligence, 

surveillance, and reconnaissance satellites to secure and expand America’s advantage in 

space. We are building a diversified and resilient architecture of spacecraft and ground 

systems designed to meet the challenges of a changing space environment by accelerating 

innovation and leveraging strategic partnerships, backed by a diverse and highly skilled 

workforce. At NRO, we see it, hear it, and sense it so our nation’s warfighters and 

policymakers have decision advantage amid increasing global competition. 

Learn more at NRO.gov.