Secret Payload Launched

 

 

 

 Nice work by the United Launch Alliance in getting the NRO‘s payload into orbit the other day. Here’s the AP report:

A rocket carrying classified satellite cargo has been successfully launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on California’s central coast.

A release from the base says the Atlas 5 rocket carrying a national security payload for the National Reconnaissance Office was launched Monday shortly after 9 p.m.

No details about the satellite’s orbit or capabilities were released.

The launch was a project three years in the making by Vandenberg’s 30th Space Wing, the United Launch Alliance and the NRO, which oversees the nation’s constellation of spy satellites.

The video, while a little over-produced, is pretty cool…

 

Here’s the one with the countdown…

 

 Hear that voice during the countdown? Same as in our ringtone. Go ahead and download it.