Washington. March 27. INTERFAX - The Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle is scheduled to launch into orbit on April 26 with the secret NROL-82 satellite in the interests of the US National Office of Military Space Intelligence, the United Launch Alliance (ULA) said.
The launch will be carried out from the US Space Force Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The launch vehicle with the satellite is already installed on the launch pad.
ULA is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, carrying out launches in the interests of the American intelligence community.
Information about the satellite is strictly classified. However, according to available data, the next KH-11 Key Hole ("Keyhole") reconnaissance satellite will be launched into an elliptical orbit with a perigee of 260 km and an apogee of 1000 km.") with optoelectronic equipment. The primary mission of the bus-sized, 1.9-ton satellite is to transmit ultra-high-resolution images to the U.S. intelligence community in real time.
The resolution of the KH-11 satellite equipment is approximately 15 cm. Its main mirror has a diameter of 2.4 meters - the same as on the American Hubble space telescope, which at one time was created by Lockheed Martin just on the basis of the KH-11 reconnaissance satellite. In size, it also resembles Hubble and has a length of 19.5 meters, a diameter of about 3 meters.
