Tag: NROL-45
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Photos: More Delta 4 launch shots
The United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket blasts into the predawn skies at Vandenberg Air Force Base with the NROL-45 payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. Photo Credit: Gene Blevins / LA Daily News See earlier Delta 373 coverage. Our Delta archive.
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Delta 4 goes against the grain to backwards orbit for spy bird
Soaring in fine fashion before daybreak, a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket maneuvered a new spy satellite into a unique retrograde orbit this morning to join an expanding constellation of radar-imaging spacecraft. The 217-foot-tall orange and white vehicle used its hydrogen-fueled main engine and a pair of side-mounted solid rocket boosters to fire away…
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Video: Delta 4 launches before dawn from California
A replay of the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket launching on the NROL-45 satellite-deployment mission for the National Reconnaissance Office from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. See earlier Delta 373 coverage. Our Delta archive.
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Photos: Delta 4 launches on secret NROL-45 mission
A collection of pad photos from the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket flight to deploy the NROL-45 spy satellite payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. Photo Credit: United Launch Alliance See earlier Delta 373 coverage. Our Delta archive.
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Photos: Delta 4 rocket revealed
The 32-story-tall mobile service tower is retracted from the Delta 4 rocket at Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex 6 pad for the NROL-45 flight that will place a surveillance satellite into orbit for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. Photo Credit: United Launch Alliance See earlier Delta 373 coverage. Our Delta archive.
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National Reconnaissance Office to begin year’s manifest with Delta 4
File of Delta 4 Medium+ (5,2) on the pad at Vandenberg. Credit: Justin Ray/Spaceflight Now. See more images like this. Beginning the National Reconnaissance Office’s campaign of four launches in 2016 using boosters big and small to deploy a varied collection of new intelligence satellites, a Delta 4 rocket stands ready for liftoff before sun-up…
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Photos: NROL-45 payload fitted atop Delta 4 for launch
This collection of photographs shows the National Reconnaissance Office’s classified NROL-45 payload, already encapsulated in the Delta 4 nose cone, being moved from the payload processing facility at Space Launch Complex 6 and lifted atop the United Launch Alliance rocket for flight on Wednesday morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Photos by United Launch…
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‘Slick 6:’ 30 years after the hopes of a West Coast space shuttle
The shuttle Enterprise sits atop SLC-6 for “fit checks” in 1985. Credit: Air Force It was 1986 and the U.S. Air Force was on the cusp of something unprecedented in human spaceflight — launching a space shuttle crew from California and paving the way for people to fly true polar missions. Space Launch Complex 6,…
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Delta Mariner drops anchor at Vandenberg to deliver rocket
Credit: Senior Airman Shane M. Phipps/Air Force. The harbor at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California received a Delta 4 rocket last week, dropping anchor aboard the Delta Mariner cargo ship after transit from the manufacturing plant in Alabama. The United Launch Alliance rocket is scheduled to lift off in April from Space Launch Complex…