NROL-52 US spy satellite launched
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NROL-52 US spy satellite launched

The second secret spy satellite of the United States name NROL-52 has launched. The satellite was launched on 15th October from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station situated in Florida at 3:28 a.m. As per the report, the launching process was delayed after facing some problem in weather and telemetry transmitter problem. Even if the delay, United Launch Alliance (ULA) has now sent NROL-52 for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) by the Atlas V rocket. After this achievement, the flight has attained 26th successful mission in 2017. All the mission were for the NRO. The Atlas V also recorded its 74th successful flight with this launch.

On 24th September, NROL-42 satellite was also launched by Atlas 5 from Vandenberg Airforce Base located in California. It is said that NROL-42 also known as the Dangerous Space Weapon made ever. Made by the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, the NROL-42 and the NROL-52 are works as the spy satellites. As this mission is much classified, the works of NROL-52 has not known yet.

ULA vice president of Government Satellite Launch, Laura Maginnis said that ULA has been serving the nation and it has proved itself as the most dependable and successful launch provider. This launch has also pored that. The launching process was delayed due to the bad weather condition caused by the Hurricane Irma. Now the team got the right time to carry out the launching process and placed the important assets into the orbit. As per the report, high winds had affected the Space Coast located in Florida, and it also affected two launches. The third launch was also got failed as the team found some technical issues. They found some fault in the telemetry transmitter in the Atlas V rocket. Again the bad weather condition affected the fourth launching process.

During the launch, the 192 foot long Atlas V produced around 1.6 million pounds force equal to 7,100 Kilonewtosn having 860,000 thrust power from its RD-180 engine. Its AJ-60A booster helped it produce another thrust power of 2 x 379,600 lbf which is equal to around 1,688 km. The Atlas V has a 13.8-foot wide payload faring which protects the rockets while entering Earth’s atmosphere. It uses an NPO ENergomash RD-180 rocket engine made by Russia in its core stage. It consumes aroun73, 800 U.S. gallons of rocket fuel and liquid oxygen during the launch. The Atlas V components have made with carbon fiber instead of aluminum. The carbon fiber has made by a Virginia based orbital ATK, Dulles.