(Download a higher resolution picture by clicking on any
picture below.)
The last Lockheed-Martin Titan IVB launch
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(Download a higher resolution picture by clicking on any
picture below.)
The last Lockheed-Martin Titan IVB rocket launched a classified National Reconnaissance Office payload into orbit from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base at 11:05 A.M. Thursday morning. Future large payloads will be launched from Space Launch Complex 6 on the Boeing Delta IV Heavy. I photographed the launch 4.9 miles from SLC-4E with a 400mm f3.5 lens and a 2x-teleconverter at 1/1000 second and an effective film speed of 200 ISO.
Tour the Space Launch Complexes of Vandenberg Air Force Base on Google Earth.
T+5 seconds. The bright flame from the solid fuel boosters saturated the CCD, but it looked bright violet looking through the 800mm telephoto lens.
T+8 seconds. Compare this launch to a shot taken from the same place of the Titan IV that was launched at 3:45 P.M. on August 18, 2000. The earlier launch used a longer payload fairing and a different launch heading.
T+30 seconds
T+36 seconds. A cloud forms behind the shock wave surrounding the payload fairing as the rocket experiences the maximum dynamic pressure of the launch.
T+49 seconds
T+60 seconds
T+81 seconds.
T+98 seconds.
T+103 seconds. The Titan IVB disappeared behind a cloud before the solid fuel booster separation.
T+271 seconds. The exhaust trail of the last Titan IVB drifts away from the launch pad, towering over the deck of scattered cumulus clouds.
More Vandenberg AFB
launch photography.
You can buy a 2012 calendar featuring my photographs of rocket launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Photos of thirteen rocket launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base:
Pegasus-XL/Wide-Field Infra-red Explorer (WIRE) March 4, 1999
Atlas-IIAS/Terra December 18, 1999
Delta II/Gravity Probe B, April 20, 2004
Minotaur/Streak September 22, 2005
Titan IV/National Reconnaissance Office satellite, October 19, 2005
Minuteman III, February 16, 2006
Minuteman III, April 2, 2008
Target Launch Vehicle, September 24, 2008
Delta-II/GeoEye 1, September 6, 2008
Delta II/Jason 2, June 20, 2008
Delta II/COSMO-Skymed, October 24, 2008
Taurus/Orbiting Carbon Observatory, February 24, 2009
Delta-II/Worldview 2, October 28, 2009
Put a copy of the Rocket Launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base: 2012 Calendar in your Lulu.com shopping cart for $16.95.
The home page of the 
30th Space
Wing
Brian Webb's Space Archive Page provides launch schedule and ham radio information.
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