{"id":14874,"date":"2017-02-16T01:48:45","date_gmt":"2017-02-15T17:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/reconnaissance-payload-mounted-atop-atlas-5-for-california-launch\/"},"modified":"2017-02-16T01:48:45","modified_gmt":"2017-02-15T17:48:45","slug":"reconnaissance-payload-mounted-atop-atlas-5-for-california-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/reconnaissance-payload-mounted-atop-atlas-5-for-california-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"Reconnaissance payload mounted atop Atlas 5 for California launch"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_22147\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22147\" style=\"width: 682px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/slc3-682x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"682\" height=\"1024\" class=\"size-large wp-image-22147\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/slc3-682x1024.jpg 682w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/slc3-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/slc3-768x1154.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/slc3.jpg 1198w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 682px) 100vw, 682px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22147\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">File photo of Atlas 5 payload lift and mate at Space Launch Complex 3-East pad. Credit: United launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Rising from the ground and into the launch pad gantry, a clandestine U.S. national security payload was fitted atop its Atlas 5 booster rocket in California today for the ride into space on March 1.<\/p>\n<p>The National Reconnaissance Office\u2019s NROL-79 spacecraft, its identity and purpose marked top-secret, will be deployed by the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.<\/p>\n<p>The unclassified launch time has not yet been announced.<\/p>\n<p>But the last major pre-flight milestone was completed this morning as the encapsulated payload was brought to the Space Launch Complex 3-East and hoisted aboard the Centaur upper stage.<\/p>\n<p>Final testing to confirm the readiness of the combined payload and rocket will be performed ahead of senior-level reviews to grant approval to proceed with the mission.<\/p>\n<p>It will be the 70th flight of the Atlas 5 since 2002 and its 14th for the NRO.<\/p>\n<p>The NRO is the secretive government agency responsible for the design, launch and operation of the nation\u2019s fleet of spy satellites.<\/p>\n<p>The NROL-79 motto is \u201cvictory through intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>See earlier NROL-79 coverage.<\/p>\n<p>Our Atlas archive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>File photo of Atlas 5 payload lift and mate at Space Launch Complex 3-East pad. Credit: United launch Alliance Rising from the ground and into the launch pad gantry, a clandestine U.S. national security payload was fitted atop its Atlas 5 booster rocket in California today for the ride into space on March 1. The [&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":[724,3393,3169,848,3394,750,3081],"class_list":["post-14874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-atlas-5","tag-av-068","tag-lift-and-mate","tag-national-reconnaissance-office","tag-nrol-79","tag-united-launch-alliance","tag-vandenberg-air-force-base"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14874"}],"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=14874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14874\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}