Washington. April 27. INTERFAX - A Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle has launched a secret NROL-82 satellite into orbit for the benefit of the US National Office of Military Space Intelligence, the United Launch Alliance (ULA) has announced.
The launch was carried out from the US Space Force Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. 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 classified. However, according to available data, another KH-11 Key Hole ("Keyhole") reconnaissance satellite was launched into an elliptical orbit with a perigee of 250 km and an apogee of 1020 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.
