Delta 373 – Spaceflight Now

Photos: More Delta 4 launch shots

February 11, 2016 Justin Ray

The United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket blasts into the predawn skies at Vandenberg Air Force Base with the NROL-45 payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office.

Photos: Delta 4 launches on secret NROL-45 mission

February 10, 2016 Justin Ray

A collection of pad photos from the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket flight to deploy the NROL-45 spy satellite payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office.

Delta 4 goes against the grain to backwards orbit for spy bird

February 10, 2016 Justin Ray

Soaring in fine fashion before daybreak, a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket maneuvered a new spy satellite into a unique retrograde orbit Wednesday morning to join an expanding constellation of radar-imaging spacecraft.

Video: Delta 4 launches before dawn from California

February 10, 2016 Justin Ray

A replay of the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket launching on the NROL-45 satellite-deployment mission for the National Reconnaissance Office from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

Photos: Delta 4 rocket revealed

February 10, 2016 Justin Ray

The 32-story-tall mobile service tower is retracted from the Delta 4 rocket at Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex 6 pad for the NROL-45 flight that will place a surveillance satellite into orbit for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office.

Live coverage: Delta 4 countdown and launch journal

February 9, 2016 Justin Ray

A United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 3:40 a.m. local (6:40 a.m. EST; 1140 GMT) today to place a secret payload into space for the National Reconnaissance Office. Follow the mission in our live journal.

National Reconnaissance Office to begin year’s manifest with Delta 4

February 9, 2016 Justin Ray

Beginning the National Reconnaissance Office’s campaign of four launches in 2016 using boosters big and small to deploy a varied collection of new intelligence satellites, a Delta 4 rocket stands ready for liftoff before sun-up Wednesday from California.

Photos: NROL-45 payload fitted atop Delta 4 for launch

February 9, 2016 Justin Ray

This collection of photographs shows the National Reconnaissance Office’s classified NROL-45 payload, already encapsulated in the Delta 4 nose cone, being moved from the payload processing facility at Space Launch Complex 6 and lifted atop the United Launch Alliance rocket for flight from Vandenberg.

‘Slick 6:’ 30 years after the hopes of a West Coast space shuttle

February 8, 2016 Justin Ray

It was 1986 and the U.S. Air Force was on the cusp of something unprecedented in human spaceflight — launching a space shuttle crew from California and paving the way for people to fly true polar missions.

2016 manifest preview: United Launch Alliance’s busy year ahead

January 2, 2016 Justin Ray

Some of America’s most critical surveillance satellites, final members of other spacecraft series and a probe that will touch an asteroid are among 15 rocket flights planned by United Launch Alliance in 2016.