CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — At 7:37 AM Central time, Alabama-based United Launch Alliance sent another rocket into space from famous Cape Canaveral, Florida. This time, however, the ship carried a top-secret spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The purpose of the satellite is highly classified. Little is known about the satellite itself or where it is headed.
While the NRO has been in existence since 1961, the American public only found out about it in 1992. The NRO is considered one of the “big five” U.S. intelligence agencies and is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia.
It designs, builds, and operates the reconnaissance satellites of the United States government, and provides satellite intelligence to several government agencies, particularly signals intelligence to the National Security Agency (NSA), and measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT) to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).
This mission was launched aboard an Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) 401 configuration vehicle, which was assembled in Decatur, Alabama.
In its more than four dozen launches, starting with its maiden launch in August 2002, Atlas V has had a near-perfect success rate. However, the ULA already has plans to replace the Atlas V with a new rocket: the Vulcan.
The Vulcan was chosen after an online poll to select the name. As of 24 April 2015, the ULA board had not yet fully approved the new vehicle, with first launch planned in 2019.
Over the past several years, the aerospace industry has really taken off in Alabama. The sector is now growing at a rate that could position it to one day challenge agriculture, automotive manufacturing and tourism for the title of the state’s largest engine of economic activity.
RELATED: Alabama’s aerospace industry soars, becomes economic powerhouse for state
“Our second fastest growing industry sector in the state now is the aerospace sector,” Alabama Secretary of Commerce Greg Canfield told WKRG at the Economic Development Association of Alabama’s annual summer conference in Orange Beach.
In addition to the projects run by the ULA, Alabama also successfully recruited Airbus to build a large manufacturing center in Mobile. The facility at the Brookley Aeroplex is used to assemble the industry-leading family of A319, A320, and A321 aircraft. The entire project represented a $600 million total investment and is expected to create up to 1,000 jobs within the production facility when it reaches full capacity. In addition, the construction phase of the project created nearly 3,200 construction-related jobs over a three-year period.
Airbus has also attracted a large number of aerospace industry suppliers to the state. The aerospace incubator Mobile Aeroplex is now completely packed with growing companies.
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