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What caught my eye initially was the unusual track of the flight path.
A United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket climbed into orbit Friday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with a top secret spy satellite, adding a new set of eyes in the sky for the U.S. government's intelligence community and nudging part of the Delta 4 family closer to retirement.
The 217-foot-tall (66-meter) Delta 4 rocket lifted off at 2:11 p.m. PST (5:11 p.m. EST; 2211 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg on the power of an Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-68A main engine and two Orbital ATK-built solid rocket boosters.
[...] ULA confirmed the flight's successful outcome in a press release around two hours after liftoff.
[...] "It's a classified payload for the NRO," Varghese said in a pre-launch interview. "We can't go into the details of what the payload does, but it's a national security priority, and it's mission will ensure that the warfighters across the globe have the appropriate intel that they need to be able to support operations."
Codenamed NROL-47, the satellite lofted Friday will likely join the NRO's fleet of orbiting radar reconnaissance stations.
The Delta 4's trajectory toward the southwest suggested it was bound for an unusual high-inclination retrograde orbit that would allow the rocket's top secret payload to travel in the opposite direction of Earth's rotation.
(Score: 3, Informative) by bob_super on Tuesday January 16 2018, @08:14PM (3 children)
Kids came out of class to see that one fly overhead. Let's hope they are more interested in the rocket than in the spying part.
That retrograde orbit means that you have to be pretty fast at processing the terrain below you, cause it's going by fast!
On the other hand, it likely means getting to a specific spot faster/more often than a cheaper orbit.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday January 16 2018, @09:46PM (1 child)
That would have a high closing velocity if it were directed to collide with another satellite.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday January 16 2018, @10:13PM
Or if another satellite were
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday January 16 2018, @09:55PM
Combine that orbit with another already in-orbit bird and you probably get three times as many passes per day and random-ish arrival times over any given area of interest.
Yes you pass faster, but that's probably not a big issue given today's photo capabilities.
We'll be seeing you.
I got no problem with this type of spying.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.