Delta IV-Heavy launches DSP-23

11/10/07 ~ 8:50 p.m.

In one of the most spectacular unmanned launches of recent years, the massive 24-story Delta IV-Heavy rocket - two-thirds the height of the Saturn V and about the same size and power of the Saturn 1B of the Apollo days - fires to life, quite literally speaking, on its second flight and first at night. Nearly three years after its first ended with a dummy satellite nearly 10,000 miles short of its target orbit, this time the 23rd and last Defense Support Program (DSP-23) missile-warning satellite was deployed flawlessly over six hours later.

WINNER, BELOW!: 2008 Aviation Week & Space Technology photo contest, first place