Yesterday at 4:12:57 pm PST, a Delta IV rocket carrying a classified national security payload (aka: spy satellite..it’s a fancy radar..) took off from Vandenberg AFB. We had the pleasure of viewing the launch on base, just outside the three-mile exclusion zone around SLC-6. SLC-6 was originally designed to launch the Space Shuttle, but the program was scrapped due to the colder climate. The cold caused rubber seals to contract, and created leaks. Speaking of which, the exclusion zone is there just in case something goes wrong…

My colleague Chris Silva took photos:

And I recorded thirty minutes of audio prior to the launch. I recommend listening to it loud, with a subwoofer. It gets good around the t minus two minute mark; the rest is for geeks: