Air Force launches surveillance satellite from Ca.

A U.S. space surveillance satellite was launched late Saturday from the central California coast, the Air Force said. A Minotaur 4 rocket carrying the Space Based Space Surveillance satellite blasted off at 9:41 p.m. Pacific time and headed toward orbit, officials from Vandenberg Air Force Base said in a news release. The satellite was designed to detect and monitor debris, satellites and other space objects that could be a threat to national security, communications and weather satellites. Monitoring from space avoids the limitations that ground observing systems experience due to weather, the atmosphere and time of day. More

(Source: The Associated Press - Sep 26)