Rocket Carrying Top Secret Cargo Launched From Vandenberg

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane!

It’s actually a rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base Saturday evening.

The Atlas Five launched just before 11 p.m.

“We’re gonna see dark, we’re gonna see light, all different types of colors because we have different rockets that is going to lift that high payload weight into space,” said rocket scientist Olympia LePoint.

Though the mission is called NROL-42 and highly classified, LePoint says we can still tell a lot about it because they’re using the Atlas Five.

That rocket is one of the strongest — it’s capable of carrying 18,000 pounds and because the mission is for the nation's spy satellite agency — the National Reconnaissance Office.

“It is a spy satellite that’s being delivered into our upper atmosphere” said LePoint. “It’s our eyes and ears towards space.”

It’s rumored the ship’s cargo is a highly-specialized orbital camera that can give us larger-than-ever views of the Northern hemisphere.

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[Much more detailed info here: Atlas V launches NROL-42 spy satellite]