{"id":15469,"date":"2016-06-07T23:39:26","date_gmt":"2016-06-07T15:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/surveillance-satellite-launching-thursday-atop-delta-4-heavy-rocket\/"},"modified":"2016-06-07T23:39:26","modified_gmt":"2016-06-07T15:39:26","slug":"surveillance-satellite-launching-thursday-atop-delta-4-heavy-rocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/surveillance-satellite-launching-thursday-atop-delta-4-heavy-rocket\/","title":{"rendered":"Surveillance satellite launching Thursday atop Delta 4-Heavy rocket"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"National
National Reconnaissance Office mission logo for this launch. Credit: NRO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CAPE CANAVERAL \u2014 One of the largest satellites in the world will launch aboard America\u2019s biggest operational booster Thursday, riding that power to a listening post 22,300 miles above the planet for its clandestine eavesdropping mission, all indications suggest.<\/p>\n

A United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket will fly from Cape Canaveral\u2019s Complex 37 at 1:59 p.m. EDT (1759 GMT). Although the duration of the day\u2019s usable launch window has not been revealed, officials previously said liftoff would occur by 6:30 p.m. EDT (2230 GMT).<\/p>\n

Weather forecasters say there is a risk of showers and thunderstorms, dropping the odds of acceptable launch conditions to 40 percent due to anvil clouds, cumulus clouds and lightning.<\/p>\n

If the launch is scrubbed on Thursday, the next try would come on Saturday afternoon. Weather improves to 80 percent favorable then.<\/p>\n

This rocket was chosen to conduct the high-priority national security launch because it can deliver the payload directly into geosynchronous orbit, requiring three burns by the upper stage and operation after a long coast to reach the destination about seven hours into flight.<\/p>\n

The Delta 4-Heavy is capable of delivering 14,900 pounds of payload into a circular geosynchronous orbit, the most of any rocket flying today. The vehicle\u2019s maximum operation time is eight hours.<\/p>\n

Most satellites headed to 22,300 miles up use a circuitous route to get there after being deployed from their launch vehicles in highly elliptical transfer orbits. The spacecraft must use onboard propulsion to systematically circularize the orbit.<\/p>\n

But the payload flying on this Delta 4-Heavy will rely upon the rocket to do all the boosting, initially reaching a low-altitude parking orbit, then stepping to the egg-shaped transfer orbit and finally firing a third time several hours later to circularize the altitude without the satellite having to do it independently.<\/p>\n

\"Illustration
Illustration of different orbits. Credit: ULA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Geosynchronous orbit is used by spacecraft \u2014 such as television broadcast birds, weather observatories and reconnaissance satellites \u2014 because that is where they match Earth\u2019s rotation and stay locked over one area of the globe.<\/p>\n

The spacecraft launching Thursday comes from the National Reconnaissance Office, the secretive government agency responsible for the country\u2019s spy satellites and overhead surveillance for the intelligence community.<\/p>\n

The NRO was created in 1961 and its existence was admitted publicly for the first time in 1992. The first NRO launch to be acknowledged in advance occurred in 1996.<\/p>\n

This launch is known as NROL-37.<\/p>\n

The NRO has flown various types of communications-interceptors since the dawn of the space age, and analysts say it is virtually certain this Delta 4-Heavy is hauling another.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe the payload is the seventh in the series of what we call Mentor spacecraft, a.k.a. Advanced Orion, which gather signals intelligence from inclined geosynchronous orbits. They are among the largest satellites ever deployed,\u201d said Ted Molczan, a respected sky-watcher who keeps tabs on orbiting spacecraft.<\/p>\n

A former NRO director called this type of satellite the largest in the world, and for good reason. It will unfurl a gigantic antenna to overhear enemy communications and aid U.S. intelligence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe satellite likely consists of sensitive radio receivers and an antenna generally believed to span up to 100 meters (328 feet) to gather electronic intelligence for the National Security Agency,\u201d Molczan said.<\/p>\n

\"Examples
Examples of previous Mentor launches aboard Titan 4B and Delta 4-Heavy rockets. Credit: Lockheed Martin and ULA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Observers think the mesh antenna\u2019s diameter is the size of a football field, comparable to the International Space Station\u2019s width. That explains why satellite-tracking hobbyists say these Mentor craft are \u201cby far the brightest\u201d in geosynchronous orbit and seen from the ground, outshining conventional craft.<\/p>\n

Although NRO satellites are secretive by nature, the spacecraft are visible by just looking up. Molczan is a member of a hobbyist group that routinely finds and watches the craft while monitoring the skies with precision.<\/p>\n

Experts believe Northrop Grumman builds these spacecraft and Harris Corp. makes the unfurlable antenna systems.<\/p>\n

It is not known in advance where in the geosynchronous belt the new satellite will be positioned or what part of the globe it will cover.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe upcoming launch may replace one of the older spacecraft in the series, or augment the fleet by occupying a new location in geosynchronous orbit,\u201d Molczan said.<\/p>\n

Previous Mentor satellites were launched by Titan 4 rockets from Cape Canaveral in 1995, 1998 and 2003, plus Delta 4-Heavy flights in 2009, 2010 and 2012.<\/p>\n

The lineage can be traced to the two Magnum satellites trucked to orbit aboard the space shuttle Discovery during the STS-51C mission in 1985 and STS-33 in 1989.<\/p>\n

\"Credit:
Credit: ULA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

United Launch Alliance\u2019s Delta 4-Heavy is America\u2019s biggest unmanned rocket currently in service, capable of lofting the largest and heftiest cargos. Its most recent mission launched NASA\u2019s Orion capsule on the Exploration Flight Test in 2014.<\/p>\n

The Heavy is created by taking three Common Booster Cores and strapping them together to form a triple-barrel rocket, and then adding an upper stage.<\/p>\n

The vehicle stands 235 feet tall, is 53 feet wide, weighs 1.6 million pounds fully fueled and will unleash 2.1 million pounds of thrust at launch.<\/p>\n

The rocket comes off the pad powered by three Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-68A engines, one apiece on the Common Booster Cores. The throttleable engine burns liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to produce 702,000 pounds of thrust each.<\/p>\n

The Port and Starboard liquid rocket boosters stand more than 150 feet tall and the Center Core is over 175 feet with interstage permanently attached. Each booster measures 16.7 feet in diameter and is covered in orange insulating foam.<\/p>\n

The cryogenic upper stage also burns liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to power its single Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10B-2 engine for 24,750 pounds of thrust. It features a cone-shaped carbon-carbon extendible nozzle that is 7 feet in diameter.<\/p>\n

The stage carries 60,000 pounds of propellant and can operate for nearly 19 minutes in all. It features a larger diameter liquid hydrogen tank and a lengthened liquid oxygen tank from the stage used by the lower-power Delta 4-Medium rockets.<\/p>\n

This will be the 374th Delta rocket launch since 1960, the 32nd Delta 4 since debuting in 2002 and the 9th Heavy.<\/p>\n

\"Previous
Previous 9 Delta 4 launches for NRO. Photos by Air Force, ULA, Ben Cooper and Gene Blevins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Delta 4 vehicle has flown 9 times for the National Reconnaissance Office, five of which were Heavy launches.<\/p>\n

Delta 317:<\/strong> NROL-22 on Medium+ (June 27, 2006) Trumpet F\/O eavesdropping
\nDelta 337:<\/strong> NROL-26 on Heavy (Jan. 17, 2009) Mentor 4 eavesdropping
\nDelta 351:<\/strong> NROL-32 on Heavy (Nov. 21, 2010) Mentor 5 eavesdropping
\nDelta 352:<\/strong> NROL-49 on Heavy (Jan. 20, 2011) KH-11 exquisite imaging
\nDelta 353:<\/strong> NROL-27 on Medium+ (March 11, 2011) Quasar data relay
\nDelta 359:<\/strong> NROL-25 on Medium+ (April 3, 2012) Topaz 2 radar imaging
\nDelta 360:<\/strong> NROL-15 on Heavy (June 29, 2012) Mentor 6 eavesdropping
\nDelta 364:<\/strong> NROL-65 on Heavy (Aug. 28, 2013) KH-11 exquisite imaging
\nDelta 373:<\/strong> NROL-45 on Medium+ (Feb. 10, 2016) Topaz 4 radar imaging<\/p>\n

United Launch Alliance intends to retire the single-stick Medium configurations of the Delta 4 by early 2019. But the Heavy vehicle will continue to serve the national security niche market into the 2020s.<\/p>\n

Technicians at the ULA factory in Decatur, Alabama, will build and stockpile the cores for several Heavy vehicles before the Medium\u2019s retirement. Making the rockets now, then allowing the entire assembly line to shut down and simply storing the Heavy vehicles is the economic way to go, officials said.<\/p>\n