The Daily Mail April 04, 2012

Top-secret US spy satellite blasts off amid mystery of what it will do (and why did the US blackout footage of launch?)

By Rob Waugh

A rocket carrying a top-secret payload blasted off from the California coast yesterday.

The Delta IV rocket lifted off from the Vandenberg Air Force Base, about 130 miles north west of Los Angeles.

The rocket contained some form of spy technology - thought to be a hi-tech replacement for America's ageing fleet of radar satellites.

It's not clear what capabilities the new generation might be armed with.

Observers think that the 'new generation' spy satellites would be capable of high-resolution scans even through cloud cover and at night.

Since the launch involved a classified cargo for the National Reconnaissance Office, no details were immediately available about whether it was boosted to its intended orbit.

The reconnaissance office, which oversees the nation's constellation of spy satellites, has kept mum about the purpose of the mission and directed United Launch Alliance to cut off the live broadcast three minutes after lift-off.

‘We've just seen the successful lift-off’ , launch commentator Don Spencer said in a webcast.

Intelligence analysts think the rocket carried a radar imaging satellite capable of seeing at night and through bad weather.

In recent years, the United States has worked to phase out its fleet of older, heavier radar reconnaissance satellites with smaller but equally capable ones, said Charles Vick, a space policy analyst with the Globalsecurity.org think tank.

Such radar satellites would be able to zero in on countries of interest and see details that typical Earth satellites cannot, experts said.

The launch involved reconfiguring the rocket to add on two strap-on boosters to provide more thrust. The protective nose cone enclosing the payload also had to be made larger.

The National Reconnaissance Agency has has launched several satellites using Delta IVs in the past two years, including four launches at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Capable of generating nearly two million pounds of thrust, the liquid-fuel rocket has a central core booster and two strap-on boosters that make the assembly 50ft wide.

An upper second stage takes over when the first stage is exhausted.