Articles by Stephen Clark

United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4-Heavy rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 3:25 p.m. PDT (6:25 p.m. EDT; 2225 GMT) Saturday with a classified spacecraft for the National Reconnaissance Office, the U.S. government’s spy satellite agency. The heavy-lifter launched for the final time from California, with two more Delta 4-Heavy flights remaining from Cape Canaveral before the rocket’s retirement.

These views show United Launch Alliance’s 233-foot-tall Delta 4-Heavy rocket standing on Space Launch Complex-6 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on the eve of liftoff with a classified spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. This will be the final Delta launch from the West Coast.

United Launch Alliance will move out of historic Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California following the flight of a Delta 4-Heavy rocket set for Saturday, leaving the military to find a new tenant for the launch pad once intended to host space shuttle missions on the West Coast.

United Launch Alliance’s ground team recently completed a countdown dress rehearsal and installed a classified spy satellite payload on top of a Delta 4-Heavy rocket at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, readying the triple-body launcher for liftoff Saturday.