Secret Payload Launched
Nice work by the United Launch Alliance in getting the NRO‘s payload into orbit the other day. Here’s the AP report:
A rocket carrying classified satellite cargo has been successfully launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on California’s central coast.
A release from the base says the Atlas 5 rocket carrying a national security payload for the National Reconnaissance Office was launched Monday shortly after 9 p.m.
No details about the satellite’s orbit or capabilities were released.
The launch was a project three years in the making by Vandenberg’s 30th Space Wing, the United Launch Alliance and the NRO, which oversees the nation’s constellation of spy satellites.
The video, while a little over-produced, is pretty cool…