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.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday January 16 2018, @08:27PM (9 children)
Response to a clueless newbie who thinks something is wrong with his Mac:
"I suggest that you avoid reading the log unless something is really going wrong. You'll always find frightening messages in there, even when the computer is working perfectly."
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday January 16 2018, @09:03PM (7 children)
an earlier version of this manual
page said true when it meant false and said false when it meant true. You
may only ask one true/false question to determine which one is correct.
Just kidding! This version of the manual page is definitely telling the
truth.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Tuesday January 16 2018, @09:56PM (6 children)
Michael: Back on your meds buddy.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Funny) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday January 16 2018, @10:25PM (5 children)
ALL OF YOU MUST BOW DOWN BEFORE THE GREATNESS THIS IS ME
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday January 16 2018, @10:27PM (4 children)
I just built the installer for our internal QA to test.
It's looking real good so I don't forsee any problems with testing by my client's customers.
(My client is a fabless semiconductor firm. Their customers manufacture finished products for end-users.)
When all the customers are happy with my product then I get paid.
I'm going to buy a car.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 16 2018, @10:43PM (3 children)
How about a refill on the meds instead of a car?
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday January 16 2018, @11:27PM (2 children)
Having a car would make it a hell of a lot easier to get to the pharmacy. As it is I spend over an hour each way on the bus.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 17 2018, @04:07AM (1 child)
Where I live I can walk to CVS faster. With the bus fare I can't afford, I could have my pick of CVSes.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday January 17 2018, @05:10AM
I wait for the bus then go from central Vancouver to downtown, wait for another bus then go back to central Vancouver, but on a different street.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday January 16 2018, @11:28PM
I Am Absolutely Serious.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday January 16 2018, @08:58PM (5 children)
Best part about the NROL missions are the launch patches. Pretty generic if you ask me, white knight, bad red dragon, latin phrase (mali nunquam praevalebunt, evil never prevails or something like that). Still nothing that comes close to NROL 39.
http://www.americaspace.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/nrol47patchnro.png [americaspace.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 16 2018, @09:31PM
Shit like that happens when people spend too much time in front of their [N|W]intedo.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday January 16 2018, @09:58PM (1 child)
A patch for each launch? Come on!
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday January 16 2018, @10:40PM
They need better patches, so they stop ripping open at Max-Q.
Note that it's a lot easier to get the Agile standup meeting focused when the lady is already reading the countdown.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 17 2018, @09:09AM (1 child)
ULA has a different patch, with a shark. https://picclick.com/Nrol-47-30-Sw-Ula-Delta-Iv-4-D-Mission-273022667913.html [picclick.com]
(Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday January 17 2018, @03:40PM
That is a bit odd, they seem to have different once for different things. This, the link, seems to be some sort of textile patch for the uniform and the one I linked was the one they had painted onto the rocket. So I guess they differentiate between mission patch and launch patch or something and it's just me being sloppy and using the words willy nilly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 17 2018, @12:46AM (1 child)
Meanwhile, American infrastructure crumbles. Homeless everywhere. Crime, lack of education, no outlook, jobs outsourced.
And the American government sends Billion-dollar spy satellites to find out what someone on the other side of the planet had for dinner.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 17 2018, @12:58PM
MAGA indeed!
We can only hope that now we've hopefully reached peak stupidity and conservatism the pendulum will once again swing towards sanity.