Delta IV Heavy NROL-26 (1)

[insat]

Вот и эмблема!


http://www.spaceflightnow.com/delta/nrol26/rollout/index3.html

[carlos]

Эмблема-то да... Однако сам запуск опять откатился вправо - теперь уже октябрь.

А вообще толкователи и гадатели пока что его отправляют на ГСО.

[pkl]

Светоч демократии

[insat]

на сайте http://www.skyrocket.de/space/ пишут:
Mentor 4 ? (NROL 26)

[insat]

а вот и поляки:

17.10.2008 z wyrzutni SLC-37B na Cape Canaveral wystartuje RN Delta-4H (model 4050H) z tajnym satelit satelit NROL-26 (Advanced Orion lub Intruder)

[carlos]

Флорида Тудей:

A classified spy satellite launch set for late September is moving back a few weeks at the request of the National Reconnaissance Office.

United Launch Alliance says the target liftoff date for the NROL-26 spacecraft is now Oct. 17. The spacecraft, which is classified, will ride atop a heavy model of the Delta 4 rocket, the biggest in the United States' fleet.

The launch window is not publicly released this far in advance of an NRO mission.
The move would put the mission's launch after NASA's launch of the space shuttle Atlantis to the Hubble Space Telescope. It creates a jam-packed fall launch calendar for Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in the last quarter.

http://www.floridatoday.com/content/blogs/space/2008/09/delta-4-heavy-launch-delayed.shtml
Перенос по просьбе хозяина ПН однако.

[insat]

Перенос по просьбе хозяина ПН однако.

Неужели  дополнительная нагрузка еще есть? :shock:

[carlos]

Почему - дополнительная? Может же быть так, что из-за основной отсрочили?

[KBOB]

Судя по ссылке 16-го декабря.
http://spaceflightnow.com/tracking/index.html
а по этой сылке 17-го.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Delta_IV_launches

Интересно сколько дней занимает подготовка ракеьы к старту?

[krypton]

По последним данным, запуск не раньше 19-го.

[krypton]

Похоже, миссия уходит вправо на январь 2009 г. Числа этак 11-го.

[insat]

Efforts to troubleshoot and resolve an issue with the top-secret national security satellite to be carried aloft by a Delta 4-Heavy rocket has slipped the launch into the New Year.
The United Launch Alliance booster sits atop Cape Canaveral's pad 37B in preparation for the NROL-26 mission, which will deploy the clandestine payload into orbit for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office.

No public information is available about the satellite or the problem delaying the launch.

Once targeted for flight in May, the highly complex launch involving the mammoth booster and a cargo undoubtedly sophisticated has been pushed back several times. This most recent snag caused officials to scrap a December 16 launch date.

It was decided this week that the launch would be rescheduled to January, thereby giving engineers sufficient time to analyze the trouble and develop a solution. In addition, the new plan will avoid ground crews working through a launch campaign over the holidays.

A new formal launch date has not been established, though officials are hoping for a mid-January opportunity.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/delta/nrol26/081209delay.html

[Dude]

Craig Covault/Cape Canaveral covault@aviationweek.com

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has delayed the planned Cape Canaveral launch next week of an advanced geosynchronous orbit Orion eavesdropping spacecraft on board a Boeing Delta IV Heavy booster.

The delay to mid January comes as the U.S. Air Force is troubleshooting problems with its Northrop/Grumman Defense Support Program (DSP) 23 spacecraft already positioned in a stationary orbit.

DSP ground controllers have lost at least some command and control capability due to a software or hardware failure on that satellite and NRO engineers want to make sure there is no commonality in software, hardware or operations that also could affect the electronic intelligence satellite.

Even before the DSP problems, the night launch had the NRO, U.S. Air Force and many intelligence professionals in the National Security Agency (NSA) worried.

This is because the NRO flight fundamentally involves America's biggest, most secret and expensive military spacecraft on board the world's largest rocket. The satellite had experienced delays even after arrival here at the Cape.

Liftoff of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Heavy carrying the highly upgraded Orion NROL-26 eavesdropping satellite had been set for Dec. 16-18 from Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 37. The combined cost of the NROL-26 spacecraft and booster is upwards of $2 billion.

The 232-foot tall triple barreled oxygen/hydrogen powered booster will lift off on 2 million pounds of thrust from its three Pratt & Whitney RS-68 engines, then fly into geosynchronous orbit on a Pratt & Whitney RL10B-2 upper stage that includes French and Japanese hardware.

There is worry among intelligence professionals, however, because this will be the first flight of the upgraded Orion class, following three years of delays in getting this specific satellite built and launched. That has pushed the span of time to five years between the launch of the last NRO geosynchronous eavesdropper here and this modernized version.

However, two different smaller NRO eavesdropping spacecraft have been launched during this period on Delta IV Medium boosters fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Those satellites do not park in a single location, but rather cycle up and down in highly elliptical orbits that climb and descend over the northern hemisphere. Like NROL-26, they too can pick up clandestine radio traffic, but monitor it from different aspect angles than the geosynchronous satellites.

Since the last geosynchronous eavesdropping mission here in 2003, NRO has been widely criticized for mismanagement of projects like its Future Imagery Architecture program, and the in orbit failure of the advanced USA 193 imaging satellite. That spacecraft launched from Vandenberg in December 2007 and died almost immediately after launch. It was then destroyed in orbit by a U.S. Navy missile to prevent its frozen ball of hydrazine propellant from harming anyone on the ground (Aerospace DAILY, Feb. 22).

The failure was caused by a software problem that an investigation found was in other military satellites also awaiting launch.

The NRO also continues to be criticized for a lack of imagination since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

[Salo]

Launch alliance faces shrinking pains
Rocket firm consolidates despite packed 19-launch schedule in '09
BY JAMES DEAN • FLORIDA TODAY • January 2, 2009

Next up: A Delta 4 Heavy rocket carrying a classified National Reconnaissance Office payload is scheduled to lift off Jan. 13 from Cape Canaveral. That will be the first rocket launch from the Cape in more than seven months. ULA's past few launches have been from California.

Эд Кайл утверждает, что это NROL-26.

[Salo]

http://www.floridatoday.com/content/blogs/space/2009/01/top-secret-mission-to-launch-tuesday.shtml

Friday, January 09, 2009
Top-Secret Mission To Launch Tuesday Night
 A giant Delta IV Heavy rocket is scheduled to blast off next Tuesday night with a top-secret payload, and the Air Force today released a five-hour launch window that narrows in on the time the behemoth booster will be taking off.

Now nestled within its mobile service tower at Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the rocket will be thundering aloft between 7 p.m. and midnight Tuesday. All indications now are that the T-zero time will be not too long after the opening of that window -- possibly around 7:45 p.m. The Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office are expected to release the scheduled launch time on Monday.

The Delta IV Heavy will carry a classified payload into orbit for the NRO, the super-secret organization that owns and operates the nation's constellation of spy satellites.

Those include photo and radar reconnaissance satellites, electronic eavesdropping spacecraft, ocean surveillance satellites as well as orbiters that relay imagery and data back to Earth.

You can watch the launch live here in The Flame Trench. We'll be broadcasting live coverage from United Launch Alliance, a joint partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing that was formed to launch U.S. government satellites, including pyaloads for the NRO, the Department of Defense, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The launch coverage will begin about 25 minutes before liftoff and continue through the time the rocket's payload fairing is jettisoned. The NRO will not release any information on the status of the mission after that time, and there will be no pre-launch or post-launch news conferences.

The U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing is warning mariners to stay out of a Launch Hazard Area off the coast of Cape Canaveral between 5:45 p.m. Tuesday and 12:45 a.m. Wednesday.

You can check out a map of the danger zone here: Delta IV Launch Hazard Area.

Officials with the Air Force's Eastern Range will clear the area prior to launch to make certain mariners are not exposed to falling debris in the event of an explosive failure early in flight.

People entering the danger zone during between 5:45 p.m. Tuesday and 12:45 a.m. Wednesday can be fined up to $250,000 and jailed for up to six years.

Тhe Air Force image of the inaugural Delta IV Heavy launch in December 2004.

[insat]

На сайте 45 космического крыла уже есть район запрета полетов.

http://www.patrick.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-090108-027.doc
http://www.patrick.af.mil//shared/media/document/AFD-061109-038.doc

[Salo]

12.01.2009 / 09:21    ВВС США подтвердили дату старта РН Delta-4

     ВВС США подтвердили дату старта ракеты-носителя Delta 4-Heavy с грузом Национального разведывательного управления на борту. Запуск состоится с площадки SLC-37B Станции ВВС США "Мыс Канаверал" в интервале от 7 часов вечера 13 января 2009 года до середины ночи следующего дня по времени восточного побережья США (13 января с 14:00 до 23:00 UTC).
     Пуск РН Delta-4 должен стать первым космическим стартом в наступившем году.

     - К.И.

[KBOB]

12.01.2009 / 09:21    ВВС США подтвердили дату старта РН Delta-4

     ВВС США подтвердили дату старта ракеты-носителя Delta 4-Heavy с грузом Национального разведывательного управления на борту. Запуск состоится с площадки SLC-37B Станции ВВС США "Мыс Канаверал" в интервале от 7 часов вечера 13 января 2009 года до середины ночи следующего дня по времени восточного побережья США (13 января с 14:00 до 23:00 UTC).
     Пуск РН Delta-4 должен стать первым космическим стартом в наступившем году.

     - К.И.

Ночной старт - да красиво будет.

[krypton]

В цитате ошибка с пересчётом времени: 19 EST = 01 (25) UTC = 04 мск.

[Salo]

Monday, January 12, 2009
Launch Time For Secret Mission To Be Released
 An exact liftoff time for the planned launch Tuesday of a top-secret mission aboard a Delta IV Heavy rocket will be announced later today, but the weather forecast for flight is a bit iffy.

The United Launch Alliance rocket and a classified National Reconnaissance Office payload are slated to blast off from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station between 7 p.m. Tuesday and midnight Wednesday.

The U.S. Air Force and the NRO are expected to release the T-zero time at 4 p.m. today, and we'll update The Flame Trench when the launch time is made public. We'll also have updates throughout the day Tuesday and webcast live video coverage of the launch beginning 25 minutes prior to liftoff.

Mission managers, meanwhile, will be keeping close tabs on the weather. Air Force meteorologists issued a forecast today that calls for a 60 percent chance that conditions will force a delay.

You can read the full details in this official report from the Air Force 45th Space Wing Weather Squadron: DELTAIVWX.pdf" target="new">Delta IV Launch Weather.

Bottom line: Thick clouds and high winds could violate launch rules.

posted by Todd Halvorson at 11:06 AM