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Mammoth Delta IV Heavy Primed for Wednesday Mission to Launch Classified NROL-65 Satellite
http://www.americaspace.com/?p=41428
Mammoth Delta IV Heavy Primed for Wednesday Mission to Launch Classified NROL-65 Satellite
By Ben Evans
It has been more than two years since Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., was rocked by the thunderous roar and titanic rattle of the world’s largest rocket currently in active service. Although the Delta IV Heavy has launched several times from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., it has flown just once from the California site. On 20 January 2011, it delivered the NROL-49 reconnaissance satellite into orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office. On Wednesday 28 August, a second Delta IV Heavy is slated to roar aloft from Vandenberg, carrying another classified NRO payload, known only as “NROL-65”. According to the Air Force, liftoff will occur from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex (SLC)-6 at 10:52 a.m. PDT (1:52 p.m. EDT). It was reported that Col. Keith Balts, commander of the 30th Space Wing, will be the launch decision authority.
Unsurprisingly, both United Launch Alliance (ULA) – who are responsible for Wednesday’s launch – and the Pentagon are remaining tight-lipped about the precise nature of NROL-65, although suspicion has been voiced that the payload may be a top-secret optical imaging satellite of the KH-11 “Kennan” class. First launched in December 1976, these satellites have passed through an estimated four generations and are thought to have been responsible for producing many detailed images of the landmasses of the former Soviet Union, China, Afghanistan and Sudan. Two years ago, the NRO offered two obsolescent Optical Telescope Assemblies (OTAs) to NASA and in June 2012 the space agency accepted the donation. Developed in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it was suggested that both assemblies may represent KH-11 imaging hardware and possess far higher resolutions than the Hubble Space Telescope.Whatever the nature of NROL-65, its allocation to the 229-foot-tall Delta IV Heavy is suggestive of a large and massive payload, possibly bound for a near-polar orbital inclination. The NROL-49 spacecraft – also codenamed “USA-224” – was reportedly inserted into an orbit of 160 x 600 miles, inclined 97.93 degrees to the equator.
<snip>
Mammoth Delta IV Heavy Primed for Wednesday Mission to Launch Classified NROL-65 Satellite
By Ben Evans
It has been more than two years since Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., was rocked by the thunderous roar and titanic rattle of the world’s largest rocket currently in active service. Although the Delta IV Heavy has launched several times from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., it has flown just once from the California site. On 20 January 2011, it delivered the NROL-49 reconnaissance satellite into orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office. On Wednesday 28 August, a second Delta IV Heavy is slated to roar aloft from Vandenberg, carrying another classified NRO payload, known only as “NROL-65”. According to the Air Force, liftoff will occur from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex (SLC)-6 at 10:52 a.m. PDT (1:52 p.m. EDT). It was reported that Col. Keith Balts, commander of the 30th Space Wing, will be the launch decision authority.
Unsurprisingly, both United Launch Alliance (ULA) – who are responsible for Wednesday’s launch – and the Pentagon are remaining tight-lipped about the precise nature of NROL-65, although suspicion has been voiced that the payload may be a top-secret optical imaging satellite of the KH-11 “Kennan” class. First launched in December 1976, these satellites have passed through an estimated four generations and are thought to have been responsible for producing many detailed images of the landmasses of the former Soviet Union, China, Afghanistan and Sudan. Two years ago, the NRO offered two obsolescent Optical Telescope Assemblies (OTAs) to NASA and in June 2012 the space agency accepted the donation. Developed in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it was suggested that both assemblies may represent KH-11 imaging hardware and possess far higher resolutions than the Hubble Space Telescope.Whatever the nature of NROL-65, its allocation to the 229-foot-tall Delta IV Heavy is suggestive of a large and massive payload, possibly bound for a near-polar orbital inclination. The NROL-49 spacecraft – also codenamed “USA-224” – was reportedly inserted into an orbit of 160 x 600 miles, inclined 97.93 degrees to the equator.
<snip>