Posted on 06/25/2006 9:11:27 PM PDT by Names Ash Housewares
The final piece of Boeing's new generation Delta 4 rocket fleet makes its long-awaited debut this week when a booster blasts off from the U.S. West Coast for the first time, punctuating the company's work to develop a line of launchers and build pads in Florida and California.
Conceived in the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program to field new American rockets to carry government payloads for the next two decades, the Delta 4 has flown five times in its medium- and heavy-lift configurations from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Now, the maiden mission from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base is poised for launch Tuesday evening.
The payload for Tuesday's mission is a classified spacecraft for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, the secretive government agency responsible for operating the nation's network of spy satellites. The Delta 4 will haul the craft into a highly inclined, highly elliptical orbit.
Liftoff will happen sometime between 7 and 9 p.m. PDT (10 p.m. and midnight EDT; 0200-0400 GMT). The actual target launch time has not been revealed.
The weather outlook predicts an 80 percent chance of meeting the launch weather rules. But low clouds and fog could ruin the view of liftoff. See the full forecast here.
Perfect, it's been awhile since we were last treated to a twilight sky show. Let's hope everything proceeds smoothly for a well timed launch. I wonder if there is a reason for the occasional sunset launches or if they just schedule them now and then to give the taxpayers a little extra bang for their buck.
A little good PR can't hurt. :=)
BTW, that's a beautiful picture. Do you happen to know from how far away it was taken?
I'll never forget the first time I saw one of those, and DIDN'T KNOW what it was. WHOOOOOOO boy.
Pings to Tuesday night!
I don't know the details of the photo but the angle of the view puts the image pretty high in the sky so I would guess that it was taken not far from the coast in Southern California.
actually twilight shots can be seen all the way into arizona and parts of Utah.
Right, I was just commenting on the apparent elevation of the contrail in the photo as an indicator of proximity. Photos from a greater distance show the contrail lower in the sky.
sorry, my bad.
Here's one taken from Arizona. Looks like a different launch though.
I'll grab one of those pings of yours BG.
Saw one a few years ago - fantastic. Even with the distance from Vandenberg, it lit up our skies. Hope the trajectory takes it north again. I'll be armed with a couple of cameras.
Interesting timing, with the whole NK thing going on. And a SPY satellite, nonetheless! (ok, I'll take off my tin cap now).
LOL.
Very interesting. Hope I don't miss it. (It won't be dark yet if it launches before 8pm.)
Thanks for the alert!
1960s: SLC-6 was originally built for USAF/NRO Manned Orbiting Laboratory, program cancelled before first launch.
1980s: The pad was refurbished for West Coast Shuttle launches, abandoned before first launch.
1995: First Athena launch, failed
1997: Athena launched Lewis satellite; satellite failed after orbit insertion
1999: Third Athena launch from SLC-6, failed again.
Local legend has it that the local Native American Indian tribe held a special ceremony to curse the pad when it was first built.
1999: Third Athena launch from SLC-6, failed again.
Not true. An Athena II launched IKONOS II from SLC-6. The bird is still in orbit and working great.
Only because the spacecraft design caused the satellite to tumble along an axis that prevented the solar arrays from receiving sunlight.
They said Insertion, HEHEHEHE
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