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Watch live as a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta 4 Heavy rocket flies for the final time Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is scheduled for 2:45 p.m. EDT (1845 UTC) on Thursday, March 28. The three-core liquid hydrogen fueled rocket is carrying a top secret payload for the U.S. military's spy satellite agency, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Our live coverage from Cape Canaveral, with commentary by Will Robinson-Smith, will begin about 90 minutes prior to launch. It will be the 16th launch for the Delta IV Heavy rocket.

Yesterday's rocket launch was scrubbed. Launch is now schedule for about 4 minutes from posting this.

***WATCH LIVE*** ULA Delta IV NROL-47 Rocket Launch

This mission was launched aboard a Delta IV Heavy configuration Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV), which featured a center common booster core along with two strap-on common booster cores. The ULA Delta IV Heavy is currently the world's largest rocket, providing the nation with reliable and proven heavy lift capability. Each common booster core was powered by an RS-68A liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engine producing 702,000 pounds of thrust. A single RL10 liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engine powered the second stage. The booster and upper stage engines are both built by Aerojet Rocketdyne. ULA constructed the Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle in...

ULA was formed in 2006 as a 50:50 joint venture between aerospace giants Lockheed Martin and Boeing that combined their existing expendable rocket fleet families – the Atlas V and Delta IV – under one roof. According to Reuters, Aerojet Rocketdyne recently proffered a $2 billion cash offer to buy ULA from Lockheed Martin and Boeing. “Aerojet Rocketdyne board member Warren Lichtenstein, the chairman and chief executive of Steel Partners LLC, approached ULA President Tory Bruno and senior Lockheed and Boeing executives about the bid in early August,” sources told Reuters. ULA’s Bruno declined to comment on the story via...

<p>NASA and Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] have completed final assembly and testing of the Orion spacecraft. The spacecraft will remain inside NASA's Launch Abort System Facility at Kennedy Space Center until it rolls to launch pad 37 in November.</p> <p>"An empty shell of a spacecraft arrived to Kennedy Space Center two years ago, and now we have a fully assembled Orion standing 72 feet tall," said Michael Hawes Lockheed Martin Orion program manager. "We're ready to launch it into space and test every inch."</p>

YouTube:Launch of World's Largest RocketSpace Launch Report:Delta IV Data Sheet

A massive rocket carrying a spy satellite for the US government launched from the California coast on Wednesday. The Delta IV Heavy rocket left the launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base and sped towards low-Earth orbit, officials said. The rocket carried a satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office, which oversees the USA's constellation of intelligence-gathering satellites. At 23 stories, the Delta IV Heavy is the largest rocket in the country. The last time it launched from Vandenberg - in 2011, the roar of the engines shook the nearby city of Lompoc. Some people reported hearing the engine roar from...

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE (CBSLA.com) — The largest rocket ever to be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base had a succesful lift-off Wednesday. The Delta IV Heavy rocket was launched with a $1 billion spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) “in support of national defense,” according to aerospace engineering firm United Launch Alliance (ULA). Once it reaches orbit in about two days, the classified payload is expected to be able to distinguish details back on Earth as minute as the make and model of an automobile. ULA officials alerted the public about the launch through its Facebook and...

The first Delta IV Heavy liftoff from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., illustrated the dramatic purge of hydrogen that results in flames swirling around the three Pratt & Whiney Rocketdyne RS-68 Common Core Booster engines that comprise the first stage. The Jan. 20 launch from Space Launch Complex-6 (SLC-6) boosted the classified NROL-49 mission into a highly inclined orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Because it was classified, details on the payload, its orbit and the results of the liftoff were not announced. But United Launch Alliance (UAV) reports, “The pad is in great shape and the rocket performed as the...

A Russian nuclear submarine Thursday morning launched a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile of the Sineva-class from the Barents Sea. The launch was made from the Delta-IV class submarine “Tula”, newspaper Kommersant writes, citing the Russian Ministry of Defense’s press service. The launch was a success, and all the targets were hit. Last time a missile of this type was launched from the submarine Tula was in October 2008. The launch was then witnessed by President Dmitry Medvedev, as BarentsObserver reported. Another Sineva missile was launched in July 2009, this time from the Northern Fleet submarine “Yekaterinburg”. In the end of...

SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) – With a message to Beijing to “stop sending your spies here,” a U.S. judge on Monday sentenced a Chinese-born former Boeing engineer to more than 15 years in prison for economic espionage and acting as an agent for China. Although former Boeing engineer Dongfan Chung was convicted last July, his sentencing in the District Court in the Central District of California coincides with a rocky period in U.S.-China relations, amid disputes over Tibet, arms sales to Taiwan, Internet surveillance, and trade and climate change issues. Sentencing Chung, 73, to 188 months in prison, Judge Cormac Carney said...

The Pentagon is participating in an interagency integrated team convened to explore how best to sustain the rocket motor industrial base — a mandate made all the more urgent given NASA’s planned cancellation of the Constellation program, according to Brett Lambert, the Defense Dept.’s industrial policy director. Each of NASA’s Ares V launchers would have required six RS-68 engines, which are common to the U.S. Air Force’s Delta IV Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV). Already, Air Force officials are seeing an uptick in the per-unit price of each EELV because procurement has slowed to keep pace with delayed satellite programs....

Air Force officials successfully launched a new-generation military communications satellite from here at 8:47 p.m. EST Dec. 5 when a Delta IV rocket carried a Wideband Global SATCOM into space. WGS satellites are designed to provide high-capacity communications to U.S. military forces and the satellites will augment and eventually replace the Defense Satellite Communication System that has been the Department of Defense's backbone for satellite communications over the last two decades. Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley, who had planned to witness the launch from the Morrell Operations Center at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station prior to a...

MOSCOW, July 14 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has successfully test-launched a Sineva sea-based ballistic missile, a source in the Defense Ministry confirmed on Tuesday. "The launch was conducted on Monday from a Delta IV class strategic nuclear-powered submarine in service with Russia's Northern Fleet," the source said. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday that Russia had successfully test-launched a ballistic missile from a strategic submarine, but did not specify the type of missile or the name of the submarine. "The target was hit and the pieces of the missile landed in the designated area," the president said at a...

America's new heavy-lift rocket has lifted off on its much-anticipated test flight. The first Delta 4-Heavy rocket roared away from Cape Canaveral's pad 37B at 4:50 p.m. (2150 GMT). Follow the rocket's flight in our live status center.

Delta 4-Heavy rocket poised for debut today America's new heavy-lifting rocket takes its much-anticipated test flight today. Boeing's inaugural Delta 4-Heavy rocket is scheduled to make its thunderous departure from Cape Canaveral's pad 37B at 2:31 p.m. EST (1931 GMT) while riding 1.9-million pounds of fiery thrust generated by its three hydrogen-fueled engines.

Boeing's Delta IV Heavy Gets Ready for its Close-Up By Jason BatesSpace News Staff Writer The upcoming demonstration of Boeing’s heavy-lift Delta 4 rocket will feature a booster-separation event soon after liftoff and a long-duration main-engine burn during which the thrust will be throttled up, down and back up again.Those are the major differences between the flight profile of the heavy-lift Delta 4 and the standard variant, said Dan Collins, vice president of Boeing Expendable Launch Systems of Huntington Beach, Calif. The heavy-lift vehicle, with three core stages in a side-by-side configuration, is designed to loft up to 13,000 kilograms...

A Boeing Delta 4 rocket has lifted off from Cape Canaveral carrying the final DSCS communications satellite for the U.S. Air Force. Follow the rocket's climb to orbit in our mission status center.

FLORIDA TODAY CAPE CANAVERAL -- Boeing's Delta 4 fulfilled its role as part of the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program by delivering its first military satellite to orbit Monday night, after pushing the launch to the very end of the window. The liftoff was dramatic, as the slow-moving Delta 4 Medium appeared to float into the clear sky on a crown of fire. As it rose, flames then licked up around the skirt designed to protect the engine's inner workings from heat. A Boeing Delta 4 rocket lifts off Monday night from Pad 37B at Cape Canaveral Air...