Posted on 06/25/2006 9:11:27 PM PDT by Names Ash Housewares
The final piece of Boeing's new generation Delta 4 rocket fleet makes its long-awaited debut this week when a booster blasts off from the U.S. West Coast for the first time, punctuating the company's work to develop a line of launchers and build pads in Florida and California.
Conceived in the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program to field new American rockets to carry government payloads for the next two decades, the Delta 4 has flown five times in its medium- and heavy-lift configurations from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Now, the maiden mission from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base is poised for launch Tuesday evening.
The payload for Tuesday's mission is a classified spacecraft for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, the secretive government agency responsible for operating the nation's network of spy satellites. The Delta 4 will haul the craft into a highly inclined, highly elliptical orbit.
Liftoff will happen sometime between 7 and 9 p.m. PDT (10 p.m. and midnight EDT; 0200-0400 GMT). The actual target launch time has not been revealed.
The weather outlook predicts an 80 percent chance of meeting the launch weather rules. But low clouds and fog could ruin the view of liftoff. See the full forecast here.
Thank you.
Launch time is 20:14 PDT (03:14 UTC)
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should be directed to kd6nrp@earthlink.net
Actually I will be out driving to a good location by then so Ill post one before I leave if someone else has not already. Hopefully no launch delays or bad weather.
Bump to the 8:14 launch time Pacific time zone.
Maybe an Admin Moderator would be so kind as to put this in Breaking News a little later.
Thanks!
Supposedly there will be a live feed of the launch from the Boeing website but I haven't located the specific URL. Anyone know about this?
I'm posting a fresh thread right now.
Fresh thread here.....
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1656862/posts
My cellphone died....but Launch time is 20:14 PDT
Me too. It’s really weird. I saw one a few years ago from the SF Bay Area at dusk. Pretty remarkable. I don’t know if it was from Vandenburg or the Thiokol plant in the mountains.
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