James Dean

FLORIDA TODAY

A new U.S. spy satellite is flying high above the planet after a Thursday morning blastoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The National Reconnaissance Office satellite rumbled from Launch Complex 41 at 8:37 a.m. atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, flying through blinding early sunlight into clear skies on a southeastern track over the Atlantic Ocean.

Powered by 1.5 million pounds of thrust from its Russian main engine and two solid rocket boosters, the 20-story rocket shot down range on its way to an orbit more than 22,000 miles over the equator.

ULA blacked out its launch broadcast five minutes into the flight - after the rocket’s nose cone split away from the satellite - to help preserve the mission’s secrecy.

About two hours later, the company declared the launch a success — the 64th by an Atlas V in as many missions.

The NRO also confirmed a positive conclusion to the launch it had promoted with a mission patch featuring a green cartoon lizard character named Spike.

“Spike is alive and well,” the agency said on Twitter.

The lizard’s symbolism, if any, was unclear.

Amateur satellite trackers who closely follow NRO missions believe Thursday’s, labeled NROL-61, launched a new model of the relay satellites known as the Satellite Data System, or SDS, and by the code name Quasar. The satellites relay intelligence including images collected by spacecraft flying in lower orbits.

The speculation drew upon study of past NRO flights and clues from the rocket’s trajectory and configuration.

The Atlas V, for example, was the first flown by the NRO with two strap-on solid boosters. It also used a slightly longer payload fairing than usual.

That suggested the rocket was carrying a larger, heavier relay satellite than the ones believed to have launched in recent years on less powerful versions of the Atlas V.

Boeing shows off Starliner factory at KSC

The launch was ULA’s sixth overall and third of four planned this year for the NRO.

Formed secretly in 1961 in the wake of the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik, the NRO’s existence and mission were declassified in 1992. The agency did not publicly acknowledge a launch until 1996.

The agency says its spacecraft help track international terrorists, develop accurate bombing targets and damage assessments and monitor the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

ULA, a Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture, is preparing a Delta IV rocket for an Aug. 19 launch from Cape Canaveral of another national security mission for the U.S. Air Force.

Before that, SpaceX is targeting a mid-August launch of a commercial communications satellite on a Falcon 9 rocket.

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 orjdean@floridatoday.com.And follow on Twitter at@flatoday_jdeanand on Facebook atfacebook.com/jamesdeanspace.