ULA set to launch mysterious CLIO satellite September 16th

The United Launch Alliance is scheduled to deliver the 'CLIO' satellite atop an Atlas V 401 rocket on Sept 16 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The CLIO satellite was built Lockheed Martin for an unnamed U.S. government agency and its purpose are similarly unknown. The CLIO system was built using commercial technology and is based on Lockheed Martin’s A2100 satellite bus. The A2100 bus is a common framework including the satellite’s solar arrays, propulsion system and core electronics. There are currently more than 40 A2100-based satellites in orbit serving both government and commercial clients.

All of the A2100 satellites launch so far are in a geostationary orbit but the GPS Block IIIA satellites will be deployed to a Medium Earth Orbit (MEO). Satellites using the A2100 bus can range in mass from just under 4,409 lbs ( 2,000 kg) to 103,044 lbs (46,740 kg). The selection of the Atlas V 401 as the launch vehicle for CLIO indicates that the satellite is in the low end of this range.

The mystery surrounding CLIO is similar to another secretive satellite mission, the Sept. 8, 2009 launch of Palladium at Night (PAN). Like CLIO, PAN was built by Lockheed Martin for an unnamed government agency. It was also based on the A2100 satellite bus and launched atop an Atlas V 401. Shortly before the launch, the government acknowledged that PAN was a classified communications satellite.

The PAN satellite has been tracked ever since it's launch by amateur satellite observers and does not behave in the manor of a normal standard communications satellite. We will know much more about CLIO once we can track its operation orbit to identify if it may be a geostationary satellite like PAN or something else entirely.

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