Update 9:45 a.m.: Thursday’s rocket launch has been cancelled. The next attempt to launch will not occur before December 30.
After scrubbing last night’s planned lift off of a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy Rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base on California’s Central Coast, Morongo Basin residents will have another opportunity to see an expected spectacular light show as the 233-foot-tall, hydrogen-filled rocket blasts into space at more than 13,000 miles per hour. With lift-off scheduled for 5:31 p.m. this evening, the rocket will reach Mach 1, the speed of sound within a minute and will be traveling at more than 13,000 miles per hour when it comes into view in the sky to the west of Morongo Basin two to three minutes later. At about that time the rocket should jettison two liquid hydrogen-filled booster engines. If all goes according to plan, it will dump a protective cone at about 5:38 p.m. as it deploys a payload satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. To date, the private space launch company has completed 131 missions with a success rate of 100 percent. If you can’t be outdoors for this event, follow a link a live streaming video at https://www.ulalaunch.com/missions/delta-iv-nrol-71
