{"id":11272,"date":"2022-09-23T19:30:23","date_gmt":"2022-09-23T11:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/photos-delta-4-heavy-rocket-on-the-launch-pad-in-california\/"},"modified":"2022-09-23T19:30:23","modified_gmt":"2022-09-23T11:30:23","slug":"photos-delta-4-heavy-rocket-on-the-launch-pad-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/photos-delta-4-heavy-rocket-on-the-launch-pad-in-california\/","title":{"rendered":"Photos: Delta 4-Heavy rocket on the launch pad in California"},"content":{"rendered":"

These views show United Launch Alliance\u2019s 233-foot-tall (71-meter) Delta 4-Heavy rocket standing on Space Launch Complex-6 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on the eve of liftoff with a classified spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. This will be the final Delta launch from the West Coast.<\/p>\n

In these photos, the Delta 4-Heavy is seen inside the 325-foot-tall Mobile Service Tower at the SLC-6 launch pad. The three cylindrical booster cores are each powered by an Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-68A engine. Together, the hydrogen-fueled engines will generate 2.1 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. A 270-foot-tall Mobile Assembly is pictured in its retracted position a few hundred feet west of the rocket and the Mobile Service Tower.<\/p>\n

Liftoff is set for Saturday at 2:53 p.m. PDT (5:53 p.m. EDT; 2153 GMT).<\/p>\n

The mission is codenamed NROL-91. Keeping with its standard policy of not disclosing details of its satellites, the NRO has not revealed any information about the payload on-board the Delta 4-Heavy rocket. But publicly available airspace and maritime exclusion zones suggest the Delta 4-Heavy will head south-southeast from Vandenberg over the Pacific, likely targeting a low-altitude orbit inclined 74 degrees to the equator. Circumstantial evidence suggests the rocket is likely carrying a high-resolution electro-optical spy satellite.<\/p>\n

ULA will secure the SLC-6 launch pad after the Delta 4-Heavy mission, then turn the site back over to the U.S. Space Force, which will search for a new tenant for the facility. SLC-6 is the largest launch pad at Vandenberg, located on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean near the southwestern part of the base. The pad was originally built for astronaut launches for the military\u2019s Manned Orbiting Laboratory program and Air Force-sponsored missions with NASA\u2019s space shuttle, but neither got off the ground at Vandenberg.<\/p>\n

SLC-6 was leased by Boeing for the Delta 4 rocket program, which first flew from Vandenberg in 2006. Boeing\u2019s Delta program became part of ULA in 2006 after a merger with Lockheed Martin\u2019s Atlas rocket program.<\/p>\n

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Credit: Stephen Clark \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Stephen Clark \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Stephen Clark \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The tops of the three common booster cores on the Delta 4-Heavy. Credit: Stephen Clark \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A liquid oxygen feed line enters the RS-68A engine compartment on the center core of the Delta 4-Heavy rocket. Credit: Stephen Clark \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Attach struts connect a side booster to the Delta 4-Heavy\u2019s center core. Credit: Stephen Clark \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Stephen Clark \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Stephen Clark \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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This wide view of SLC-6 shows the pad\u2019s Mobile Service Tower at right, surrounding and protecting the Delta 4-Heavy rocket. The Mobile Assembly Shelter, originally built for the space shuttle, is at center with the U.S. flag. Credit: Stephen Clark \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Stephen Clark \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Stephen Clark \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These views show United Launch Alliance\u2019s 233-foot-tall (71-meter) Delta 4-Heavy rocket standing on Space Launch Complex-6 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on the eve of liftoff with a classified spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. This will be the final Delta launch from the West Coast. In these photos, the Delta 4-Heavy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11272"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11272\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}