{"id":14068,"date":"2018-01-16T17:44:20","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T09:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/photos-delta-4-blasts-off-from-vandenbergs-historic-slc-6-launch-pad\/"},"modified":"2018-01-16T17:44:20","modified_gmt":"2018-01-16T09:44:20","slug":"photos-delta-4-blasts-off-from-vandenbergs-historic-slc-6-launch-pad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/photos-delta-4-blasts-off-from-vandenbergs-historic-slc-6-launch-pad\/","title":{"rendered":"Photos: Delta 4 blasts off from Vandenberg\u2019s historic SLC-6 launch pad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A United Launch Delta 4 rocket lifted off Friday from the SLC-6 launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, powering into orbit from a historic seaside complex originally developed for crewed missions.<\/p>\n<p>The 217-foot-tall (66-meter) Delta 4 rocket, boosted by two strap-on solid-fueled rocket motors and a hydrogen-fueled RS-68A main engine, lifted off from Space Launch Complex 6 at 2:11 p.m. PST (5:11 p.m. EST; 2211 GMT) Friday with a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office.<\/p>\n<p>Codenamed NROL-47, the top secret spacecraft is believed to be a radar spy satellite owned by the NRO, an agency in the U.S. government\u2019s intelligence community.<\/p>\n<p>It was the 36th flight of a Delta 4 rocket since 2002, and the first of four Delta 4 missions planned in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>The SLC-6 launch pad was originally developed for the U.S. Air Force\u2019s canceled Manned Orbiting Laboratory program, then re-built for the Air Force\u2019s plans to launch space shuttles from California. That initiative was canceled in the aftermath of the Challenger accident in 1986.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_29679\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29679\" style=\"width: 675px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-29679\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/div_nrol47_1a113201815628AM63.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"675\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/div_nrol47_1a113201815628AM63.jpg 900w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/div_nrol47_1a113201815628AM63-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/div_nrol47_1a113201815628AM63-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/div_nrol47_1a113201815628AM63-678x452.jpg 678w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-29679\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: ULA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_29737\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29737\" style=\"width: 675px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-29737\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/div_nrol47_l2113201815333AM63.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"675\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/div_nrol47_l2113201815333AM63.jpg 900w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/div_nrol47_l2113201815333AM63-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/div_nrol47_l2113201815333AM63-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/div_nrol47_l2113201815333AM63-678x452.jpg 678w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-29737\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: ULA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_29678\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29678\" style=\"width: 675px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-29678 \" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/div_nrol47_l3113201815523AM63.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"675\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/div_nrol47_l3113201815523AM63.jpg 900w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/div_nrol47_l3113201815523AM63-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/div_nrol47_l3113201815523AM63-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/div_nrol47_l3113201815523AM63-678x452.jpg 678w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-29678\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: ULA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_29738\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29738\" style=\"width: 675px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-29738\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/div_nrol47_l4113201815246AM63.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"675\" height=\"1013\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/div_nrol47_l4113201815246AM63.jpg 675w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/div_nrol47_l4113201815246AM63-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-29738\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: ULA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_29739\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29739\" style=\"width: 675px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-29739\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/180112-F-IN231-001.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"675\" height=\"1014\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/180112-F-IN231-001.jpg 675w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/180112-F-IN231-001-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-29739\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: U.S. Air Force photo by Michael Peterson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_29740\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29740\" style=\"width: 675px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-29740\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/180112-F-IN231-002.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"675\" height=\"1014\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/180112-F-IN231-002.jpg 675w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/180112-F-IN231-002-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-29740\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: U.S. Air Force photo by Michael Peterson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_29741\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29741\" style=\"width: 675px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-29741\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/180108-F-XJ735-001.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"675\" height=\"945\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/180108-F-XJ735-001.jpg 675w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/180108-F-XJ735-001-214x300.jpg 214w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-29741\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Clayton Wear<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_29742\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29742\" style=\"width: 675px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-29742\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/180108-F-XJ735-003.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"675\" height=\"945\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/180108-F-XJ735-003.jpg 675w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/180108-F-XJ735-003-214x300.jpg 214w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-29742\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Clayton Wear<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b><i>Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A United Launch Delta 4 rocket lifted off Friday from the SLC-6 launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, powering into orbit from a historic seaside complex originally developed for crewed missions. The 217-foot-tall (66-meter) Delta 4 rocket, boosted by two strap-on solid-fueled rocket motors and a hydrogen-fueled RS-68A main engine, lifted off [&hellip;]<\/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":[3066,1878,3067,1688,25,848,3068,3069],"class_list":["post-14068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-30th-space-wing","tag-delta","tag-delta-379","tag-delta-4","tag-launch","tag-national-reconnaissance-office","tag-nrol-47","tag-space-launch-complex-6"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14068"}],"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=14068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14068\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}