Air Force launches rocket with secret military payload from Cape Canaveral

Air Force launches rocket with secret military payload from Cape
Canaveral

(EXCERPT) Associated Press Posted September 9 2003, 7:06 AM EDT

CAPE CANAVERAL -- A Titan 4B rocket lit up the night sky as it roared
from its pad early Tuesday carrying a classified National
Reconnaissance Office satellite into space.

Air Force officials would not discuss the secret payload, but the NRO
is charged with building and monitoring the nation's network of spy
satellites and providing reconnaissance information to the Central
Intelligence Agency and the military.

The Lockheed Martin-built Titan has a rich military legacy dating back
to its development in the mid-1950s. The Titan 1 became the nation's
first two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile and first
underground silo-based ICBM.

Lockheed Martin spokesman Evan McCollum said the Titan 4B that
launched Monday is the largest, most powerful unmanned launch vehicle
in use in the United States. It featured two massive 112-foot soli...

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---------------------------
Otis Willie
Associate Librarian
The American War Library
http://www.americanwarlibrary.com