The Tuesday evening launch also was the first West Coast mission completed for the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program. Liftoff of the Delta IV Medium+ configuration rocket occurred at 8:33 p.m. Pacific Time from the Edwards Space Launch Complex 6. The payload deployed successfully about 54 minutes later, Boeing said in a news release.

SLC-6 now will become the West Coast launch site for the Boeing Delta IV family of launch vehicles. The location provides the U.S. military and intelligence communities the strategic capability of launching national security satellites to polar, Sun-synchronous and high-inclination orbits, the release said.

The new launch site also can support all five configurations of the Delta IV family, Boeing said.

Tuesday's mission was the first for the NRO aboard a Delta IV and the second aboard a Delta rocket. The first was the GeoLITE mission in 2001 aboard a Delta II.

The 132-acre SLC-6 features structures similar to Boeing's Delta IV SLC-37 launch site at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. It includes a fixed-umbilical launch tower, mobile service tower, fixed pad erector, launch control center and operations building and horizontal integration facility.

SLC-6 also features a mobile assembly shelter that protects rockets from adverse weather.

Boeing transports launch vehicle hardware from its factory in Decatur, Ala., to Vandenberg via the Delta Mariner, which docks just south of SLC-6.

The next Delta IV launch from Vandenberg is planned for later this year, involving a mission for the Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program - DMSP-17.

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