BLOGGER UPDATE, Saturday: The U.S. Air Force now is identifying the payload as a "government communications satellite." See this Media Advisory
An Atlas V rocket and its classified payload were given a preliminary green light for launch next week as United Launch Alliance and an unidentified U.S. government customer agreed to press ahead with final countdown preparations.
The 191-foot-tall Atlas V and its clandestine cargo are scheduled to blast off from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 5:35 p.m. Tuesday. The launch window will extend through 7:45 p.m. that night.The preliminary forecast calls for a 60 percent chance electrically charged clouds or lightning in the area will force United Launch Alliance to scrub on Tuesday. Meteorologists will be keeping close tabs on a seabreeze that could push electrically charged clouds off the tops of seasonal thunderstorms and into the Cape Canaveral area around launch time.
The forecast for a 24-hour delay worsens. Meteorologists say there is a 70 percent chance conditions would prohibit launch on Wednesday.
Managers gave a go to push ahead with countdown preparations at the conclusion earlier today of a traditional Launch Readiness Review.
The rocket's payload is so highly classified that no federal agency is laying claim to ownership. Not the National Reconnaissance Office. Not the Department of Defense. Not the U.S. Air Force. Or DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.The payload is known by the acronym PAN. Supposedly that stands for "Pick A Name."
However, a mission patch acquired from The Space Review through nasaspaceflight.com suggests the acronym stands for "Palladium At Night."
A mission sticker (above) offers little insight. It shows a smiling frog riding a rocket, waving a cowboy hat with planet Earth in the background. A slogan beneath the rocket says: "The Simplest Of Programs." Its nosecone is inscribed: "P360/PAN."
Click HERE for a two-page mission "overview" from United Launch Alliance.
It lacks a lot of the detail ULA normally provides in documents for other launches but does include a mission events summary that shows the super-secret spacecraft will be deployed just under two hours into flight, which suggests a mission to geostationary orbit 22,300 miles above Earth.
That's the realm of communications and data relay spacecraft.
If anybody has a clue, we'd be interested in hearing what you think. Simply leave your comments below.
We'll have live coverage of the launch here in The Flame Trench on Tuesday. See you then.
ABOUT THE IMAGES: Click to enlarge the mission sticker (top) and you can barely see the little cartoon of the frog riding the rocket at the bottom of the image. The Palladium At Night patch will not enlarge, but note the interesting question mark hidden in the plume trailing the rocket. The spooks have outdone themselves this time.
8 comments:
Anybody who follows this sort of stuff has already seen this, but here's an article from a week ago -
http://thespacereview.com/article/1450/1
Postulates the mysterious item as a possible high orbit NRO relay for low-orbit signals. But the article also asks, "If it's so secret, why not slap an NROL on it and not attract as much attention?"
Are you sure that's a mission patch and not a launch patch?
I think for our safety and the safety of our nation - if it is a CLASSIFIED MISSION - it should remain CLASSIFIED and you shouldn't be asking for any clues - Americans should act to protect Americans!!
Todd,
I think you have an extra "0":
"... to geostationary orbit 22,3000 miles above Earth."
Anon:
Dang, that's up there, isn't it? Just about all the way to the moon, 22,3000......My fingers must have been typing too fast. Thanks for the note. Nice catch. Fixed it!
What a conundrum… We as Americans ask for protection for our freedom and us. However, when attempting to provide that blanket of protection we question how, what, why, how much? Risking our safety that we asked for… Some things are better left alone. I don’t understand how any of the launch information is public information. Most of the public would not know what to do with it and those who do either work out there or are potentially untrustworthy and a risk to national security.
What a conundrum… We as Americans ask for protection for our freedom and us. However, when attempting to provide that blanket of protection we question how, what, why, how much? Risking our safety that we asked for… Some things are better left alone. I don’t understand how any of the launch information is public information. Most of the public would not know what to do with it and those who do either work out there or are potentially untrustworthy and a risk to national security.
speculation
About the frog: frog in Spanish is "sapo." SAPO = Special Activities Program Office?
As it happens, the CIA's paramilitary branch is apparently called the Special Activities Division: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Activities_Division
So maybe it's going to provide bandwidth for operators and UAVs in AfPak and thereabouts?
/speculation
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