The satellite payload aboard its triple-core ULA Delta IV Heavy rocket launched at 5:18 a.m. EDT Thursday from Space Launch Complex 37 at Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The launch was originally planned for Wednesday morning but was scrubbed due to an issue with a ground systems pneumatics valve.
Weather was 80% favorable hours before the Thursday launch with Andrea Lehnhoff, ULA's systems engineering lead, stating during the live broadcast as the countdown ticked toward zero that there was a 10% probability of the launch violating weather constraints.
The NROL-68 mission is the second to last for ULA's Delta rocket, which ULA said is the only operational rocket in the world that "possesses all the necessary attributes to meet the stringent requirements to perform the NROL-68 mission."
The rocket is to be retired after one more launch with expectations that the workhorse will be replaced with ULA's next-generation Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle.
ULA added that the launch continues its relationship with the NRO that began with their first flight together in 2006. NROL-68 was ULA's 33rd for the NRO.
The satellite that is to be put into orbit is to be operated by the NRO to provide intelligence data to U.S. policy makers, the intelligence community and the Department of Defense, ULA explained.
The NRO oversees the operations of the United States' reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering orbitals.
Related Links
National Reconnaissance Office
Military Space News at SpaceWar.com
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