California's Vandenberg base had its first launch of a Delta-4 Heavy rocket on January 20, at 2:10 UTC, when a these vehicles (D352), left from the ramp SLC-6, once built for the space shuttle to place in orbit a super-secret spy satellite. The mission, called USA-224/NROL-49, was watched by many amateur observers, and monitoring of the object placed in orbit shows must belong to the family of photographic reconnaissance satellites Improved CRYSTAL (an improvement of the old KH-11). Sometimes also called KH-12, this would be the sixth such vehicles, all of whom had been released so far by the retired Titan rocket-IV (the last in 2005). These satellites carry very powerful optical systems that send high-resolution images. Large telescopes are basically not very different from the Hubble, with cameras facing the Earth instead of into space, built by Lockheed Martin. The most recent issue covers the work of another apparently released in 2001, too aged. An enhanced program was canceled several years, so that Lockheed Martin had to build two satellites of the former family, one of which corresponds to the current mission. Another fly probably in 2013, while the first of a new series could be ready in 2017. ( Photo: ULA / Pat Corkery ) ULA
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