Atlas V carried a secret satellite. by Milota Sidorova

Although space missions of any kind are usually well described and publically introduced in advance, this time a rocket carrying classified satellite cargo launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base without any specification. The rocket took off by 9 p.m. from Californian coastline. The whole program was covered by the National Reconnaissance Office, Vandenberg's 30th Space Wing and the United Launch Alliance. NRO has been responsible for designing, building and operating of nation reconnaissance satellites. Some of their clients are including Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of Defense. The company has undergone continuously declassification – its headqua! rters were localized in Chantilly, Va in 1994 and opened around 800,000 CORONA images that were transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration. Since 1996 it has become more open, eventuelly announcing launches of a reconnaissance satellites. Atlas V rocket was used for last flight, the next flight under NRO is scheduled on January 15 and later on March. Times however, haven't been specified yet. For January mission Delta IV Heavy is going to be used and Atlas V will take off again in March. The next flight from Vandenberg AFB will be September 26th. Minotaur IV will insert the payload into a 540 km circular orbit. According to official time schedule, the payload is the Space-Based Space Surveillance satellite. Delta II will take off launching COSMO-SkyMed 4 radar Earth-imaging satellite on October 29th. The next scheduled flight will be November 22nd and Taurus XL will carry Glory scientific satellite and three small satellites as secondary payloads.
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related story (sgx18240): http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_atlas_launch;_ylt=AvSKGrdqSW40...

by Milota Sidorova for Cantell TV (http://cantell.tv)

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