Classified Delta IV Rocket Launch Aborted With Seconds To Go 

Update: it sounds like SpaceX are going to be able to launch SAOCOM on Sunday after all.

Simple enough. Grommit left the handbrake on again.

You always say "until then, I'm Scott Manley" yet you always remain Scott Manley.

To misquote the old Japanese proverb, "If you sit by the computer long enough, a video by Scott Manley will appear to answer all your questions".

6:37 a very polite way of saying "the engineers tried to hide they were playing KSP at work".

Always blown away how you can release such professionally researched and detailed videos right after an event. As I was watching Everyday Astronaut's stream in the middle of the night and we were all trying to figure out what was going on I kept thinking "Well surely Scott Manley will come along tomorrow morning and explain exactly what happened like he was there in Mission Control!"

Bunch of solid motors dressed up as a rocket sounds like some of my kerbal carrying projectiles.

To be fair, given the risky business of rockets and the accepted risks of failure, this baby worked as intended. A fault presented, and automated control systems aborted effectively and safely within their window and parameters of operation, and the payload was not lost. Embarrassing, especially given the context of the current SpaceX/ULA contract awards, but definitely preferable to a lost payload.

I was at Vandenberg for NROL 71. It is spectacular. The hydrolox engines are amazingly quiet for the size.

Id rather take an abort over a full on destruction.

At least it will give ULA a little taste of how it feels to launch a previously used rocket.

Complex, folding (unfolding) antenna structures sound like a good reason for vertical integration; it would require less hold-down complexity for the "loose" ends of the folding structure if they could count on just hanging out (always pointing "down" relative to the payload vs gravity/thrust orientation).

Imagine being the only company not getting money to develop the solution for a problem, because you have already finished developing it xD

I was wondering how long this would take to come out. Thanks for the insightful video Scott.

Thanks Scott I learn so much from your shows. At my age I don’t know how much I retain, but it’s definitely a Disney E Ticket ride. Thanks! Stay Safe

Good episode Scotty, keep em coming. I didnt know 75% of what you discussed today, and I always believe i learn new to me things when I take the time to listen to your channel .

Scott Manley, reverse-engineering spy satellite since 2018 xD TY for the high quality content. Can't wait to see your review on Artemis 1 next year !

Not embarassing. The safeguard systems worked as intended.

Wow, this was quick, I was just watching this live last night :) Awesome job!

Neat! I love the time and effort you put into producing these.

3 cheers for hold down clamps!

Who else remembers the good old days when ULA would diss SpaceX as the unreliable upstart?

Thanks for the analysis scott

I love your through coverage and comparisons

I know one thing, I stayed up for the darn thing and had to be up really early. I am tired but I saw something last night I've never seen. I saw the glow of a rocket and then no rocket in the air 😂.

I suspect that the strict requirement for orientation has to do with [REDACTED]. At least, that's what makes the most sense to me.

Thanks for an amazing video once again mate! Cheers!

We have to be patient, there will get it right soon. Cheers from Sydney Australia!

I was super excited for this one because it was around 5pm on a Saturday here in Australia, and launches NEVER seem to happen at such convenient Antipodean hours! (Or else I'm just not paying enough attention and miss them even though I got the notifications.) Watched about 30mins of the leadup to the big fizz, I thought ULA did a good job with the detail in their coverage considering it was a classified payload, and keeping viewers updated regarding the temp anomaly. Thanks for the analysis Scott, looking forward to your post-launch vid too!

The NSA reminds us to "Be sure to carry your personal tracking and surveillance device with you at all times".

My dad was in the Air Force Space Command for 22 years (launch officer). Ret in 1988. Lots of Bomarc crashes ahh I mean launches and other fun out of Eglin, Diego Garcia and Vandenberg. I had a lot of failed rocket models as a kid and a few "toys" that the public never knew about as they were still on the hush hush side of things. I had a Brilliant Pebbles launch device model. Nobody knew what it was but there it was next to GI Joe on the lawn. I've had many a conversation about why they launched this or that and why they didn't do some else. He would just say I could tell you the reason then I would have to aah ground you. Later I understood that as under ground you about 6 ft. Family jokes..... The whole they can't load the payload on it's side dug that memory up. I also want to say thanks Scott. Because of your channel I started asking questions again about what he did and he was excited to talk about it more. I guess I just stopped asking after so many I can't tell you answers. I have shown him some of the rockets gone wrong footage on YT and he gave ground zero reports on what it was like to be there. Ok. No wonder you didn't say anything. How are you still alive? Back in the day a rocket blows up and people are running into pickup trucks to get away from the orange cloud. Ahh the early days. Thanks again!

Mr. Manley, thank you for the update.

Well, better 3 second before liftoff than 3 second after.

Gemini 6 shutdown is the one I most remember back in December of 1965. Very tense situation.

"It's sort of like a drift turn but in a rocket." This is why I ♥ you Scott

Thanks for the update

I was confused about vertical integration for a long time cause I thought it was the business buzzword definition but no it's literally integrating the payload vertically.

While you stayed up late, I got up early. Greetings from the other side of the pond. :)

Fascinating as always !!!

Thanks Scott.

Scott: “Omega will probably never fly” Me: but...what about more boosters :(

I had a wierd dream two days back that I was being scolded by Scott Manley for not tightening the bolts on a Soyuz's launch escape system and because of me, two cosmonauts had died. He then tied me to the launch escape system with a loose bolt and said "Hullo this is Scott Manley, Fly safe.". 😂😂. Love from India ♥️

Too many you tubers have 1 minutes of material covering the video title, then 10 plus minutes of woffle. Scott has about 1 minutes of material covering the video title and then 10 minutes plus of fascinating and extremely interesting information on closely related areas. Just brilliant.

I'm really excited to see pictures of the DIVH on the pad today, all crispy-looking.

I knew scott manley was going to do explanation on that topic i ve been waiting to see it

Man, scotts quick

Very informative as usual

I suspect the reason for vertical integraton is the Orion spacecraft's enormous deployable antenna which is pretty much made out of gossamer, moon-beams, and prayer. The stowed and compressed structure probably cannot tolerate sideways loading (given that it would then be suspended sideways from its base, with the antenna's weight attempting to deform its shape while stowed, and this might severely impair either its ability to deploy reliably, or its close-to-ideal-parabola shape once deployed, so as to be able to focus signals on the LNA or whatever most effectively.

why did i laugh at "killed a cow."?

You know its super secret when they redact the artist impression lol

To cool. My dad after helping build up in Arizona the titans went to Vandeberg for some cool work a few years ago of course. Did the tour of the silo he work titan 3c was my favorite

Fascinating presentation!

"It's highly classified, but here's what it is and what it does" :))

"Liftoff!.... um..." Love it when the PR play-by-play announcers step on their (thingie)

Damn that’s crazy, love you Manley and that glassy rotund orbital head of yours

Am a new subscriber, great info thanks !!! Who knows what is really on those payloads !!!??

Scott: Delta IV from the 90s becomes an old lady by now Sojus: Cute 😅

can you turn the lego-saturn-v-tower in the next video? I would love to see the other side with the pipes!

Great show with fireball ! ✌🏻🚀🌍👍🏼

Great information .

I'm starting to believe that GSE is the arch-nemisis of rockets today...

Vertical = large structures that require structural support, i.e. mirrors.

One thing I've heard about vertical integration is it may require less 'structure' work on the satellite--it only has to worry about forces from one direction, which saves on mass, letting them maximize their mass usage on other things.

Small point about the Five Eyes - one of the obscure points in the agreement is that each country will permit its satellites to be used to transfer data between other craft and then to ground stations which, technically, includes Prospero

Nobody had a problem with leaking information through symbolism on the patch?

I was watching through most of the “countdown hold” at the 4 minute mark. I just had a horrible feeling about the launch, so horrible that I switched off. I ain’t no ghoul. Glad nothing worse happened.

My dad worked with the reconnaissance office at the CIA and got to see a bunch of classified launches. He also got me in the cockpit of an SR71 when I was just young enough to not represent a security threat. : )

Great videos

"We can't tell you why we can't tell you why this is classified because that's classified too."

Please make a video on what will be the cargo that starship will carry to Mars in 2022 and what are the difficulties that spacex will face and love your vidoes

I watched it live last night. I’m glad it didn’t end up exploding and ruining the payload. P.S. Tory Bruno is the man!

I drove 3 hours from Miami on August 26 to see it launch. It was canceled. Drive back to miami. Drove the 3 hours back on the 29th just to see this. So frustrating. Drove 800+ miles to see it get scrubbed TWICE!

Delta IV Heavy is so cool because it uses the most powerful cryogenic rocket engines in the world and because it is the most powerful rocket currently in operation with the exception of the Falcon Heavy. The difference is that the Falcon Heavy requires 27 engines whereas the Delta IV Heavy only needs 3.

When the Delta IV does a pad abort, does it require any repairs to the tank insulation before they can attempt another launch? The fireball can't be great for that stuff, after all.

That Orion stuff sounds mighty impressive and interesting

Waiting for Scott's SAOCOM 1B video! Probably Monday night or Tuesday moring i presume. 🤘🏻🤘🏻

when did you get the launch escape tower of your Saturn-V back?

2:26 should we call it "meatobraking"?

We were waiting for this also. I now live within range of the rocket launches at KSC. I want to see this big boi fly from closer now. We were out and listening to the owls while watching the live stream when they scrubbed. I caught the Space-X launch yesterday! The sonic boom of the reusable rockets returning scared my cat out of the window. SPACE!

Hey Scott could you do a segment on how the Space Shuttle SSME and how over time the engineers eventually figured out how to start them up I saw something from NASA that explains that it took over 2 years to get it to run up to speed in the turbines just to initially get spooled up and burn for under 2 seconds and it took them 2 years to get that far.

I honestly don't know why I'm subscribed to this channel. I don't know anything about rockets. But it sure is interesting. Thanks Scott. 👍🚀👨‍🚀🛰🌌

It’s the prettiest operational rocket until Starship is complete.

this was my first Delta IV launch, good to hear it was a special one

Vertical orientation because it contains a large foldable antenna. The packing is critical not bend the antenna arms from gravity.

When did the solids light up on the shuttle? Kind of hard to shut them down once they're lit...

The real star was the cricket immediately after launch abort matching the mood of everyone watching.

Since it has a massive mesh antenna folded away inside a fairing. It makes sense that they could want to keep it in the downward position.

Has to be kept vertical to keep all of the secrets from spilling out! (These things are full to the brim! - Lol!) Of course, it may be something simple like Richard Feynman's story about watching Shuttle boosters being assembled. There was a procedure where they checked the roundness of the booster sections before attempting to assemble them. It involved two guys with a tape measure, counting bolt holes by hand to determine where to measure the booster. When Feynman saw it, he said it was crazy and asked why they didn't just have the manufacturer put some paint stripes on the boosters insteam. The assembly crew said it would be too expensive. "Too expensive! That's 5 cents worth of paint!" They said yes, it would cost about 5 cents to put the stripes on, but it would cost thousands of dollars to change all of the procedure manuals. Changing the assembly procedure and testing it would probably be way more expensive than paint stripes, not to mention changing secret manuals....

2:30 The cows will be evacuated this time.

Last time I was this early people still said "first" instead of "last time I was this early"

A launch puts huge loads on the cargo so it might not be strong enough to hold it's own weight in the horizontal without flexing due to the weight of making it strong enough in the vertical direction for launch. There may also be some mechanical mechanism that unfolds and if it is tilted something could shift and get stuck. You would be pretty angry if you launch a sat and then your solar panels don't open because an edge got caught on a corner or something.

Thanks for the Gloops of Data

I'm just chuffed it didn't hurt anyone. I don't think embarrassment exists in space travel when nobody gets hurt but that's why you're a rocket scientist and I'm an oompa loompa :P

Talks about Falcon Heavy, shows Falcon 9.. lol

I am so happy you noticed the Five Eye Easter eggs in the patch logo. I was going to explain that to someone else the other day and then I decided they would think I was a little crazy. Rhyolite also picked up microwave relay traffic by getting right behind the receivers. The number of microwave relay towers is not what it once was, because of fiber optics.

Holy crap, your ending theme nearly gave me a heart attack! Too loud!

SigInt from the 1960s "there's no civilian use for that" ... Yes there is. History. Historians are the nosiest, most eclectic magpie type collectors of everything outside the NSA itself.

FVEY wolf? Always knew the "intelligence" agencies were furrys

Scott. I don't know why they need verticle integration but that is the standard integration for US gov S/C. Europa Clipper is maintaining a number of LVs. FH is one of them. The random vibe loads during transport to the pad on a fully fueled S/C are not insignificant. This is a S/C lateral load case. Also, the path at KSC put a -3degree incline on the S/C so we have to control fuel and oxidizer backflow. Just some possible contributors. I know SpaceX is working on a larger fairing. That might mean there is a kick stage like a Star48 or Orion50. That could also complicate the horizontal transport issues.

My guess after some reading is the antenna structures have to be kept vertical because of Gforce and bending under gravity. The precision of these antenna and their gain is amazing. They can zoom in on RF down to 1km size area and frequencies from 2MHz to many GHz and pickup signals that are not pointed up but ground based. Pagers, cell, telemetry, anything radio, including EMPs. People may not realize but every cell phone text and call is permanently recorded and analyzed for possibly future intel without a search warrant.