America's largest rocket to launch secret satellite into space on Saturday

By Brian Lada, Meteorologist

June 9,2016; 7:10PM,EDT

 

 

America's largest rocket is set to launch a classified satellite into Earth's orbit on Saturday afternoon after stormy weather forced Thursday's launch attempt to be postponed.
The massive Delta IV Heavy rocket will be used to send a large satellite into Earth's orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office; however, the exact details of the satellite and its mission have not been released to the public.
The launch was originally scheduled for Thursday afternoon, but rain, clouds and lightning near the launch pad made the launch unsafe, so the launch was moved to 1:51 p.m. EDT Saturday.
As of Thursday morning, the Air Force's 45th Weather Squadron was predicting that the weather conditions would improve for Saturday's launch attempt, but there is still a 40 percent chance that the weather could interfere with the launch.
The primary weather concerns on Saturday will continue to be rain and thunderstorms, although the thunderstorms are not expected to be as widespread as they will be on Thursday.
A previous Delta IV Heavy launch. (Photo/NASA)
Rockets like the Delta IV Heavy cannot take off when there is rain or the threat of lightning at the time of launch. These weather conditions can be potentially damaging to the rocket and its cargo.
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The Delta IV Heavy rocket is the largest American rocket currently in operation and was designed by the United Launch Alliance.
The amount of thrust that this massive rocket produces is required to send the large reconnaissance satellite into geosynchronous orbit, an orbit that is much farther away from Earth than objects such as the International Space Station.
Geosynchronous orbit is commonly used for weather, communication and surveillance satellites since it allows the satellite to stay fixed over the same part of the Earth all of the time.
This will be the Delta IV Heavy rocket's ninth launch. The most recent Delta IV Heavy launch took place in 2014 when NASA sent their newly developed Orion space capsule on its first test mission into space.

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Questions or comments? Email Brian Lada at Brian.Lada@accuweather.com and be sure to follow him on Twitter! Follow AccuWeather on Twitter or on Facebook.