Brenda Marie Rivers
United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4 rocket is slated to send payload from the National Reconnaissance Office to orbit on August 26 following program delays, Spaceflight Now reported Friday.
As part of the NROL-44 mission, the heavy-lift rocket will launch a classified NRO satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to geosynchronous orbit, or 22K miles, above Earth.
Col. Robert Bongiovi, director of the Launch Enterprise Systems Directorate within the U.S. Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center, previously confirmed the mission’s rescheduling from its original June launch date, according to the report.
Delta 4 arrived at Cape Canaveral in December to undergo preparations for the NROL-44 launch, which will serve as the rocket’s 12th flight with a heavy-lift configuration since 2004.
ULA is slated to launch five more NRO payloads using the Delta 4-Heavy rocket through 2023.
