Zirconic

Zirconic was a National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) codename for a program initiated under the Presidency of Ronald Reagan to develop reconnaissance satellites equipped with stealth technology. Concealed within the Byeman Control System (BYEMAN), Zirconic operated as a special compartment and encompassed the Misty and Prowler spacecraft, each designed to minimize radar, visible, infrared, and laser signatures. Access to any Zirconic-related data required a dedicated “Zirconic clearance,” and the underlying development effort was internally codenamed Nebula.

Misty deployments began in 1990, when Misty‑1 launched aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis and was deployed “over the side” rather than through a conventional payload bay ejection; amateur observers nevertheless visually tracked Misty within months. Misty 2 followed in 1999 atop a Titan IV-B rocket, during which observers noted the ejection of a high‑altitude decoy intended to obscure the true payload’s orbit. A subsequent classified follow‑on, Prowler, remained under tight compartmentalization, and its operational details have never been fully disclosed.

By the early 2000s, Zirconic had grown into one of the single largest line items in the U.S. intelligence budget, with Misty’s development costs rising from an initial $5 billion to over $9 billion by 2004. The program drew scrutiny from the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and both the House Committee on Appropriations and Senate Committee on Appropriations, as critics argued that extreme secrecy enabled unchecked spending and limited transparency, while proponents contended that stealth capability provided unique intelligence advantages in scenarios where adversaries believed no satellites were overhead.