[SatNews] When ULA announced their upcoming launch is a biggie, that is no exaggeration. Now rescheduled for January 20, at 1:08 p.m. PST from Space Launch Complex-6, Vandenberg AFB, California, the launch of the ULA Delta IV Heavy with a National Reconnaissance Office payload will take place. And Heavy is certainly accurate as well as Biggest. This will be the largest rocket ever launched from the West Coast of the U.S. with nearly 2 million pounds of thrust at launch at liftoff, but it is not America’s most powerful rocket.  That would be the Space Shuttle with nearly 7 million pounds of thrust.  But it is the largest physically standing approximately 235 feet tall.   

This is also the first launch from SLC-6 since November 2006. 

ULA will provide a live TV broadcast beginning 25 minutes prior to launch at 12:43 p.m. PST. The satellite coordinates should be available on January 12 and will be forwarded.

Launch Webcast: A simulcast of the launch can be viewed on the ULA website at. This website is currently inactive, and will become active only while the launch is occurring.

Keep in mind, the broadcast will end approximately 6 minutes and 30 seconds after launch with the confirmation of spacecraft fairing separation and all external audio and video feeds will end at this time.

Developed in partnership with the U.S. Air Force (USAF) Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, the Delta IV family of launch vehicles combines design simplicity, manufacturing efficiency, and streamlined mission and vehicle integration to meet customer requirements to launch high-priority USAF, National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), NASA, and commercial payloads to orbit. With operational launch pads on both coasts—Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, and Space Launch Complex-6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California—every Delta IV configuration is available to service the requirements of current and future satellite programs.

The Delta IV launch system is available in five configurations: the Delta IV Medium (Delta IV M), three variants of the Delta IV Medium-Plus (Delta IV M+), and the Delta IV Heavy (Delta IV H). Each configuration is comprised of a common booster core (CBC), a cryogenic upper stage and either a 4-m-diameter or 5-m-diameter payload fairing (PLF).

Since 1957, the Delta rocket, and its predecessor Thor, have carried satellites into orbit that have brought our world closer together and helped deepen our understanding of the universe.