US Air Force prepares to launch spy satellite Thursday

Ready to take a classified national security payload and a batch of hitchhiking cubesats into space early Thursday from California, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket is in the final days of preparations for blastoff. The middle-of-the-night launch is slated to occur at 12:40 a.m. local time (3:40 a.m. EDT) Thursday. The mission will originate from Vandenberg Air Force Base's Space Launch Complex 3-East, a "classic pad" with a retractable service gantry and fixed umbilical tower. More

(Source: MSNBC - Aug 2)