Vandenberg Air Force Base received its new Delta 4 rocket on Nov. 5. The delivery came via cargo ship from a manufacturing plant in Alabama, according to a press release from the base.
The Delta Mariner cargo ship brought the rocket, which was manufactured at the United Launch Alliance plant in Decatur, Ala. The harbor at the base received the rocket, which was a leftover part of the base’s infrastructure built in the 1980s and is used exclusively by the Mariner.
After leaving the facility in Alabama, the rocket first moved to Cape Canaveral by cargo ship, then back through the Gulf of Mexico, through the Panama Canal, before making its way to Vandenberg, said Capt. Crystal Hamilton, 4th Space Launch Squadron launch mission manager.
“The Delta rocket travels by boat because it’s too large to be transported any other way,” Maj. Lawrence Ware, 4th SLS director of operations, said in the press release.
The rocket cost around $250 million to make, Ware said.
Media representatives at Vandenberg couldn’t be reached by the Sun to explain more as of press time.
The rocket is scheduled to launch into space in April for a classified mission by the National Reconnaissance Office, a U.S. intelligence agency based in Chantilly, Va., that makes and operates spy satellites.
Even though it’s classified, the NROL-45 mission will most likely involve launching a low-orbiting satellite into space to provide high-resolution imagery.
The rocket will deliver an Evolved Expendable Launch vehicle, of which the satellite will most likely be its cargo.
The launch is tentatively scheduled for April 14, 2015, from the Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg.
This article appears in Nov 13-20, 2014.