Launch News Delta IV Heavy launch with NROL-65, August 28, 2013

[Urwumpe]

That fireball is expected and normal. The Delta IV was designed to handle it. Today's launch was very much like a launch of a Medium+ which has only one RS-68.

Thats not really normal - it is worse than expected and can cause LV damage during launch. It was thought that a bit of hydrogen is no problem, but for the heavy version, the hydrogen concentration is far too high, thus the work to mitigate this.

Also, the fire on the previous Heavy launch was pretty critical as well - the foam fire can become hot enough during launch to melt aluminum structure.

Ablative protection foam should also not burn. It should undergo pyrolysis (get charred), endothermally without flames.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

And here's some video for the folks that missed the show (like me)

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

URRRRAAAAHHHHHH!

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Bump for launch photos - I've forgotten about it:

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Interesting... the scorch marks are only on one side of the boosters.

 

[Soheil_Esy]

Highly secretive US spysat USA-245 (NROL-65) finally caught on High res camera!

More tracking of USA 245, and being flashed by ALOS

Friday, September 06, 2013

After my observations in the hours after launch on August the 28th and my observations on September 3, I observed the newly launched KH-11 Keyhole USA 245 (NROL-65, 2013-043A) again yesterday evening.

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It was brighter yesterday than during my previous observations, this time reaching an easy naked-eye brightness. Near 20:38:15 UTC it slowly brightened to mag.+1. Above is one of my images, showing it as it traverses the northern part of Cygnus.

http://sattrackcam.blogspot.de/search?q=usa+245

Two spy satellites, KH-11 USA 245 and the FIA Radar 1, near each other in yesterday evening twilight over Leiden

3:23 AM - 4 May 2014

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I imaged USA 245 (2013-043A), the current main West plane KH-11, last Saturday evening. In evening twilight, it was visible in the same camera field with FIA Radar 1 (2010-046A)

https://twitter.com/Marco_Langbroek/status/462900325322473472

NROL65 spysat-flyby with flare

Taken on July 25, 2015 by Heiko Linke

Canon EOS 60D
EF70-300mm; f/4-5.6 IS USM
ƒ/8.0; 70.0 mm
10 s; ISO 6400

11:27 PM - 6 Aug 2015

spysat-flyby usa 245 NROL65 https://www.flickr.com/photos/steppke23/19821004108/in/album-72157655934488599/ … with flare in the moonlight

https://twitter.com/hlinke/status/654772647193022464

First Close-Up Of USA 245 (military Hubble)

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Taken by Ralf Vandebergh on October 28, 2015 @ the Netherlands

4:38 AM - 4 Sep 2015

High res Images of USA-245 show clearly telescope tube. Though remain unpublished yet. Looking for (online) magazine interested in the story

https://twitter.com/ralfvandebergh/status/639764453156909057

Details:

First existing high resolution images of the last most recent launched Keyhole satellite USA 245. We can see the telescope tube clearly. More information available on my website soon. 10 inch aperture telescopic image.

http://spaceweathergallery.com/indi...d=119403&PHPSESSID=pcmv2qj4b9d2oiathd1bvknq52