This article caught my eye, if only because of the inaccuracy of the headline. The nation’s largest rocket was actually the Saturn V. When someone prints a headline like that, it normally means they just took the public release, and reprinted or copy/pasted it. I think they mean the nation’s largest, currently, which might be true. Lazy journalism abounds. It’s always funny to me how the media concentrates on the launch system, and not the more interesting payload.
However, they are launching from Vandenberg AFB (Air Force Base), California which is the launch range used primarily for polar low earth orbit satellite launches. The guesses are it’s an imagery bird, which dovetails nicely with the current posts. However, there’s nothing to prevent the satellite from doing the things the Chinese are supposedly doing. It’s all guesswork on the part of everyone but the people working at the actual ground system node, the operations center. Increasing the inventory of Terminator satellites would be good for peace-loving nations everywhere…
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- Nation’s largest rocket to blast off on Wednesday (stltoday.com)
The Mad Spaceball 