Delta IV heavy rocket launch from Vandenberg AFB (Santa Clarita, Lompoc: appointed, home)

[bigdrakes]

Did anyone in Ventura County see or hear the launch last thursday
(1-20)?? If so pls describe what you know. I was just on the parameter of Vandenberg and what a sight it was. Hundreds came out to see it near Surf Beach.

[NickelDime]

From a blog in nearby Santa Clarita:

Thursday’s Rocket Launch – Eyewitness Account | SCVTalk.com (http://scvtalk.com/2011/01/22/thursdays-rocket-launch-eyewitness-account/ - broken link)

Jim Mahon of Valencia, a self-described rocket geek and member of the SCV’s Local Group Astronomy Club, provided this great account of Thursday’s rocket launch of a Delta IV-Heavy from near Vandenberg Air Force Base:

When they launch a military payload from Vandenberg AFB, the Air Force seldom provides much in the way of information about the thing riding the rocket. But yesterday’s inaugural west coast launch of a Delta IV Heavy from SLC-6 at Vandenberg was a big deal for US intelligence. The Delta IV Heavy is the only launcher capable of putting the largest spy satellites into orbit, and whether this was an optical imaging spacecraft of the KH series (think something that looks like Hubble, but looking down rather than up) or a radar-imaging or electronic eavesdropper, it was a class of payload that the US has not been able to launch from Vandenberg for almost a decade, since the retirement of the Titan 4.

What’s the big deal about Vandenberg? Well, for those who never thought about it, the greatest coverage of the Earth by a recon satellite is obtained when the bird is in a POLAR orbit. With the orbit more or less fixed in inertial space, the planet rotates beneath, presenting all the world for viewing. You cannot do polar orbit launches from Cape Canaveral because of overflights of large populated areas. But Vandenberg, hung out on the westward extension of the California coast just north of Pt. Concepcion, is nicely placed to safely launch south over the Pacific into these high-inclination orbits. So it is safe to assume that an aging, or perhaps completely missing piece of America’s intelligence gathering assets is now being replaced by a new spacecraft which is now undergoing activation and checkout in orbit.

I drove up the coast yesterday with my boss Tony Cook from Griffith, and we met up with LG member Linton Rohr at our improvised observing site. We’d decided not to go to the recommended spot at Surf Beach near Lompoc, because that would place us north of the pad looking right into the sun as the vehicle left the ground for the southbound launch.

My original idea of using Jalama Beach Park was stymied by the closure of the park for the launch (It would have been primo, just 8 miles from the pad and about 6 miles off the ground track as the Delta climbed away, but was probably also in the debris impact area in the event of a catastrophic booster failure…) So, we went past Gaviota beach on 101, and caught US Rte 1 where it cuts off to the west towards Lompoc, running through the hills north of the base. We went about 9 miles in, and found a turnout that placed us looking towards the pad from the ENE, about 14 miles as the crow flies from the pad. That sounds like a great deal, but it beat Gaviota at 22 miles and gave a much better viewing angle. It helped that this placed us in a gorgeous pastureland setting, the hills blazing green with grass from the recent rains.

At the appointed time, the Delta 4 cleared the ridge right in front of us, yellow flames and the three-barrel configuration clearly visible to the naked eye, and I watched in binoculars as it climbed out, trailing a short-duration contrail from perhaps 20,000 to 40,000 feet that largely disappeared thereafter. As it climbed out to our southwest and the aspect angle changed, we found ourselves looking up the exhaust nozzles, visible as three distinct yellow dots, and after about 3 minutes we lost the rocket in the sun. Just after though, we caught a pair of white plumes created by the tumbling, venting strap-on boosters as they fell away, below the sun from our vantage. Throughout, we were treated to what I really came for – the deep, low frequency rumble of almost 2 million pounds of rocket thrust driving a 23 story tall vehicle into the sky. I am, and will always remain, a rocket geek!

Here’s a good video produced by United Launch Alliance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3ET2...layer_embedded

[bigdrakes]

Jim, you were sure right about the Sun I live about three miles from Surf beach and watched it from my mailbox about 200 yards from my home. The Sun was right in my eyes, and according to every picture I saw in the local papers, everyone had their hand or something covering their eyes. Good call.

I took an awesome video of the launch, but in my rural neighborhood, we only have dial-up which makes downloading/uploading video near impossible.

3 months early, I believe it was aTitan rocket, blasted off at around 7:30pm and I'd never heard such ruckus. My entire home shook as if it was an earthquake. Yes, my dog lilly bolted until about 1am.

Paul

[proudmommy]

I saw it from El Segundo, 140 miles away. The RS-68 engines were made by Rocketdyne in Canoga Park.