Powerful Delta IV Heavy rocket launches US spy satellite on final flight from California

[Hamartia Antidote]

Powerful Delta IV Heavy rocket launches US spy satellite on final flight from California

Just two Delta IV Heavy missions remain now, both of which will launch from Florida.

www.space.com

The Delta IV Heavy's West Coast work is done.

The powerful United Launch Alliance (ULA) rocket launched a hush-hush satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California today (Sept. 24), the vehicle's last-ever liftoff from the Golden State.

The Delta IV Heavy took flight at 6:25 p.m. EDT (2225 GMT; 3:25 p.m. local time) from Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex-6 on a mission called NROL-91. Very little is known about the spacecraft that went up on NROL-91. That's no surprise; the NRO builds and operates the U.S. fleet of spy satellites, the activities and payloads of which tend to be classified.

An NRO mission description(opens in new tab) outlines NROL-91 only in vague terms, saying it "supports the overall national security mission to provide intelligence data to the United States' senior policy makers, the Intelligence Community and Department of Defense."

We don't even know which orbit the satellite will occupy; that information isn't given in the NRO or ULA descriptions, and ULA ended its webcast about seven minutes after launch today at the NRO's request.

Today's launch was the 14th overall for the Delta IV Heavy, which debuted in 2004. The 233-foot-tall (71 meters) rocket is capable of lofting 62,540 pounds (28,370 kilograms) to low Earth orbit (LEO), more than any other currently operational launcher except SpaceX's Falcon Heavy.

The Falcon Heavy can deliver 140,660 pounds (63,800 kg) to LEO, according to its SpaceX specifications page.

ULA is phasing out the Delta IV Heavy in favor of a new rocket called the Vulcan Centaur, which could debut by the end of 2022. Just two Delta IV Heavy flights remain, both NRO missions that will launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Those missions will lift off in 2023 and 2024, if all goes according to plan.

 

[Beast]

This rocket is ultra expensive just to launch a payload. Typical American product which overprice but same performance compare to peer rocket. What happened to falcon heavy?

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

This rocket is ultra expensive just to launch a payload. Typical American product which overprice but same performance compare to peer rocket. What happened to falcon heavy?

Falcon Heavy next month for the US military. Center core will not land as it is to be expended after helping get a large satellite to GEO.

Falcon Heavy | USSF-44

A Falcon Heavy rocket launched with USSF-44 from LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA on Tuesday Nov 01, 2022 at 13:41 UTC.

nextspaceflight.com

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Launch Time
NET October, 2022
First SpaceX mission direct to GEO

USSF-44​

USSF-44 is a classified mission for the United States Space Force.
There will be 2 payloads on board this mission, a larger, unconfirmed satellite and a micro-satellite named TETRA-1. TETRA-1 is the first in a series of prototype GEO satellites being launched by the US Military which will test systems procedures for future satellites.

 

[casual]

That's a 28ton satellite