US launches spy satellite

Mar 12, 2011 |

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Washington: An unmanned Delta 4 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Friday apparently carrying a spy satellite.

The rocket launch is hauling along a satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office.

The Air Force Space Command released a comment under the byline of Col. James Ross of the 45th Space Wing vice commander, who explained that the mission 'helps ensure that crucial NRO resources will continue to strengthen our national defense', reports CBS News.

The launch follows by less than a week the Air Force's launch of its second secret X-37B space plane on yet another clandestine mission.

Both spacecraft were blasted off on a rocket provided by United Launch Alliance, a Virginia-based company that designs, builds and operates the U.S' intelligence-gathering spy satellite network.

Jim Sponnick, a vice president at ULA, said in a statement that these missions play an important part 'in protecting our freedoms and supporting our brave men and women deployed around the world'.

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