At 12:47 AM Eastern Daylight Time this morning, August 19th, a Delta IV booster carrying the twin AFSPC-6 satellites successfully lifted off from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. These satellites are, as best i can tell, intended to monitor on orbit activities of other satellites and the like for the benefit of national security. As you know with me, I don’t as much care what the payload is as I do the rocket launch itself… and what a launch it was!
This mission used a Delta IV Medium configuration, which uses 2 additional solid rocket boosters to increase liftoff thrust. The DCSS is also smaller on this kind of booster when compared to the Delta IV Heavy, but it is more than enough to get the job done for payloads of this weight and size class.
The livestream of the mission launch ends after payload fairing jettison, per the request of the USAF, but it can be presumed at this time that everything has gone fine with the booster and that the satellites, at the time of me writing this, are either on their way to their proper orbits or have already been inserted into them safely.
Either way, enjoy the launch livestream, and be sure to turn the volume up on ignition. With a good sound system, it is especially awesome to hear!