NASA, United Launch Alliance and Air Force officials hold the pre-launch news conference for the Delta 2 rocket with the agency’s SMAP environmental satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Jan. 27.
Atlas 5
Atlas 5 rocket, NRO payload return to launch pad after repairs
Ready for blastoff just after sunset Wednesday with a classified payload for the U.S. government’s spy satellite agency, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket rolled out to its launch pad at Cape Canaveral late Tuesday afternoon after an unplanned trip back inside its integration building for repairs.
Atlas 5
Video: NROL-42 launch aboard the Atlas 5 rocket
The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, standing 197 feet tall and and weighing 1.2 million pounds, unleashes 2.4 million pounds of thrust from its main engine and four side-mounted solid boosters to launch the secret NROL-42 payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.