The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, standing 191 feet tall and and weighing 720,000 pounds, unleashes 860,000 pounds of thrust from its main engine at 9:49:51 a.m. local time (12:49:51 p.m. EST; 1749:51 GMT) today to launch the secret NROL-79 payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
See earlier NROL-79 coverage.
Our Atlas archive.
A robotic space shuttle with stubby wings, tail fins, its belly covered with black thermal tiles, clam-shell doors that swing open to reveal a payload bay and a solar array for ultralong-duration missions rode into orbit Wednesday on the fourth mission of the Air Force’s reusable X-37B spaceplane project.
A Chinese communications satellite carrying a Dutch radio astronomy instrument launched last month is expected to maneuver into position around a gravitationally-neutral point beyond the moon in the coming days, ready to relay telemetry and data between Earth and the Chang’e 4 lander set to attempt the first landing on lunar far side late this year.
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