[en] This work describes a systematic experimental study and kinetic modelling of the steady state and the transients associated with the turn-on and turn-off of a NO hollow cathode discharge. The local charge density and mean electron energy have been determined with a double Langmuir probe. Time-resolved Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and electron bombardment quadrupole mass spectrometry with ionization by electron impact have been used to measure the gas temperature and the concentrations of the stable molecules present in the discharge: the precursor, NO, the major products, N₂, O₂, and the minor species NO₂ and N₂O. Emission spectroscopy has been employed to study the time behaviour of the very reactive nitrogen and oxygen atoms. A model based on a reduced set of kinetic equations including electron dissociation, gas-phase reactions, and gas-surface processes gives a global account of the measured data. From the time-resolved results, electron impact dissociation rate constants for some of the involved species under the conditions of the experiment are estimated. This model is compared with that obtained in previous works on N₂O plasmas