USA-207,[4] international COSPAR code 2009-047A,[5] also known as PAN, officially meaning Palladium At Night,[6] NEMESIS I,[7] or P360[8] is a classified American SIGINT satellite,[7] which was launched in September 2009. The US government has not confirmed which of its intelligence agencies operate the satellite, [9] but leaked documents from the Snowden files point to the NSA.[10] The spacecraft was constructed by Lockheed Martin, and is based on the A2100 satellite bus,[6] using commercial off-the-shelf components.[8] The contract to build PAN was awarded in October 2006, with the satellite initially scheduled to launch 30 months later, in March 2009.[11]
![]() PAN mission patch | |
Mission type | SIGINT |
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COSPAR ID | 2009-047A ![]() |
SATCAT no. | 35815 |
Spacecraft properties | |
Bus | A2100 |
Manufacturer | Lockheed Martin[1] |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | 8 September 2009, 21:35:00 (2009-09-08UTC21:35Z) UTC[2] |
Rocket | Atlas V 401 |
Launch site | Cape Canaveral SLC-41 |
Contractor | ULA |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric |
Regime | Geostationary |
Perigee altitude | 35,778 kilometers (22,231 mi)[3] |
Apogee altitude | 35,807 kilometers (22,249 mi)[3] |
Inclination | 0.09 degrees[3] |
Period | 1436.12 minutes[3] |
Epoch | 10 January 2015, 14:22:18 UTC[3] |
PAN was launched by United Launch Alliance using an Atlas V 401 carrier rocket, with the serial number AV-018. The launch, from Space Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, occurred at 21:35 GMT on 8 September 2009, at the start of a 129-minute launch window.[12] PAN successfully separated from the rocket just under two hours after liftoff.[13]
PAN has shown an unusual history of frequent relocations during the first 5 years of its operations, moving between at least 9 different orbital slots since launch. With each move, it was placed close to another commercial communications satellite.[7] From 2013 onwards it was located at 47.7 deg E., over East Africa, staying in that position for several years. In February 2021 it started a slow drift eastwards.[14]
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Payloads are separated by bullets ( · ), launches by pipes ( | ). Crewed flights are indicated in underline. Uncatalogued launch failures are listed in italics. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are denoted in brackets. |