Fergie's Tech Blog

Rocket Carrying U.S. Spy Satellites Suffers Glitch

An AP newswire article, via Space.com, reports that:

A rocket carrying an intelligence-gathering payload for the Pentagon suffered a technical problem after its launch, officials said. But they were confident Saturday that its secretive mission would be performed.

The Atlas V rocket launched Friday morning, hauling a payload from the National Reconnaissance Office, a division of the Department of Defense that builds and operates spy satellites.

The NRO said Friday night that the launch was successful, but the rocket's Centaur upper stage later had a "technical anomaly which resulted in minor performance degradation.''

Rick Oborn, an NRO spokesman, said Saturday there was a slight but manageable problem. Officials did not elaborate and have not said exactly what the rocket was carrying or how it would be used.

posted by Fergie @ 6/17/2007 09:07:00 AM