Posted on 12/21/2004 2:00:43 PM PST by Rockitz
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.
3 minutes to burn and looking good!
Just watched it on Boeing's website! Very cool.
Glad to hear of it. Good. :)
T+plus 13 minutes. Upper stage is still firing -- longer than expected..
That's the best present possible for my Christmas.
"T+plus 13 minutes. Upper stage is still firing -- longer than expected..."
"T+plus 15 minutes. The next major event will be deployment of the two nanosats riding on the side of the DemoSat primary payload. The separation signal should be issued about 45 seconds from now. The physical release of the small craft occurs 38 seconds later."
1. To carry bigger nuclear weapons.....I doubt it.
2. To carry a man back to the moon.....I doubt it.
3. To carry giant Spy-In-The-Sky payloads into space....you can bet on it.
"T+plus 16 minutes, 10 seconds. Data confirms the upper stage firing did complete."
What's it do, unfurl a big banner in the sky supporting gay rights?
Rats! I missed it! nice clear view today from here also. Durnit.
Wow...looks like this thing is making multiple stops on the way up to 22,000. Cool.
No, but I hear it drops a load of hanging chads on Palm Beach county...
4. To re-locate DU'ers to another planet without Bush.
How did you do that? I couldn't find that link.
2213 GMT (5:13 p.m. EST)
T+plus 23 minutes, 20 seconds. The Ascension island tracking station has acquired the rocket's telemetry stream.
Woooohoooo!!!!
Yes, NRO satellites. Project Prometheus. Support for Moon and Mars missions. Support for defense weapons...to name a few more.
Just wondering here, but is it safe to assume that "DemoSat" is really just a dummy load? Or was this a legit launch? The government blows a billion dollars all of the time. Why not build a spy satellite for the first launch, and if the launch works, hey - good for them!
"Heavy-lift".
Who you foolin?
40 years ago, the Saturn 5 could deliver 5 times the payload than this "new heavy-lift" into either earth orbit or trans lunar injection.
This just shows how little we have advanced in rocket techology. Too much $$$ going to social welfare. Not enough $$$ going to science and exploration and NASA.
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