Delta 4 Heavy rocket
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

[Via Satellite 08-30-13] A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta 4  Heavy rocket successfully placed a confidential payload for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Dubbed NROL 65, the mission is in support of national defense.

The spacecraft was launched aboard a Delta 4 Heavy configuration Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV), which featured a center common booster core along with two strap-on common booster cores. An RS 68 Liquid Hydrogen/Liquid Oxygen engine producing 663,000 pounds of thrust powered each common booster core. A single RL10 Liquid Hydrogen/Liquid Oxygen engine powered the second stage. The booster and upper stage engines are both built by Aerojet Rocketdyne. The payload was encased by a five-meter diameter (16.7-foot diameter), 65-foot, metallic tri-sector payload fairing. ULA constructed the Delta 4 Heavy launch vehicle in Decatur, Ala.

The launch marks the eighth for ULA in 2013, the 24th Delta 4 mission and the second Delta 4 Heavy launch from the Vandenberg Air Force Base. ULA’s next launch is scheduled for Atlas 5 AEHF 3 mission for the United States Air Force scheduled on Sept. 18, from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.