Friday, January 21, 2011
Giant Delta IV Rocket Makes History in West Coast Launch
The United Launch Alliance successfully blasted off the largest ever rocket from the West Coast Thursday evening.
At 1:10 p.m. PST, private rocket group the United Lanch aliance successfully launched a The 235-foot-tall Delta IV Heavy rocket -- one of a class of "heavy-lift" rockets designed to carry massive payloads such as satellites. It marked the largest rocket ever to lift off from the West Coast.
The launch was moved back by two minutes from 1:08 p.m. to avoid an object in space, said Michael J. Rein, spokesman for United Launch Alliance, the joint venture of rocket builders Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co.
The take-off was then a success: The booster rose into the sky over California's central coast and arced over the Pacific Ocean, a spectacle visible over a wide area. Initial reports from launch control indicated the flight was going well, with the rocket hitting speeds of 14,000 feet per second a few minutes into its launch.
The rocket carried a mysterious payload into space on the NROL-49 mission: a clandestine satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office described only as something that will "support the military's national defense mission." The NRO operates satellites that provide information to the Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Defense.
