Crews working on Virginia’s Eastern Shore this week raised a top secret payload for the National Reconnaissance Office — the U.S. government’s spy satellite agency — atop a solid-fueled Minotaur 4 rocket for liftoff July 15 on the first Minotaur launch in nearly three years.
A light-class Electron launcher built and owned by Rocket Lab fired into orbit Thursday (U.S. time) from a privately-owned spaceport in New Zealand with a top secret payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, the U.S. government’s spy satellite agency.
Rocket Lab’s first mission for the National Reconnaissance Office, which owns the U.S. government’s fleet of intelligence-gathering satellites, is scheduled to launch from New Zealand as soon as Jan. 30 (U.S. time), officials announced Monday.
A United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket climbed into orbit Friday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with a top secret spy satellite, adding a new set of eyes in the sky for the U.S. government’s intelligence community and nudging part of the Delta 4 family closer to retirement.
Watch a replay of the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, hauling into orbit a new eye in the sky for the National Reconnaissance Office.
The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, standing 194 feet tall and and weighing a million pounds, unleashes 1.6 million pounds of thrust from its main engine and two side-mounted solid boosters to launch the secret NROL-52 payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office from Cape Canaveral.
This is our comprehensive fact sheet previewing the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket deployment of the classified NROL-52 payload for the National Reconnaissance Office.
The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket stands atop Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral in readiness for the NROL-52 deployment mission for the National Reconnaissance Office.