Q&A with Steve Skladanek, president of Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services

The United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket fired away from Cape Canaveral at 1:51 p.m. EDT today to deploy a covert surveillance satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office.

A rocket engine with a long pedigree marked a big milestone on Monday. It’s 60 years since the hydrogen-fueled RL10 engine debuted onboard a Centaur upper stage launched from Cape Canaveral on Nov. 27, 1963.

A dramatic automatic abort 7.5 seconds before the planned liftoff of a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket Saturday night kept the towering launcher on the pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, with a top secret spy payload for the National Reconnaissance Office.