Live launch broadcast-16/9-CLIO

[Kryten]

At 21:45 UCT today (eighteen hours after the timestamp in this post, for whatever timezone you're in), ULA will launch the CLIO spacecraft for the US government; a live broadcast will be available here.

So what exactly is CLIO? Nobody knows. We don't even know what government agency this is for, or what orbit it's going into. LM had said it's based on one of their existing commercial satellite buses, so it can't be anything extremely exotic, but there are still plenty of possible missions and payloads. Anyone have a good guess?

[Dodgey]

Alright, A 0745 launch time, I might actually be awake for this one. If that is all we know then it really could be anything, do we have any idea on the launch profile or anything of the nature?

[PakledHostage]

Anyone have a good guess?

I don't have any guesses myself, but SpaceFlightInsider has some more details that might fuel the speculation.

[Kryten]

Alright, A 0745 launch time, I might actually be awake for this one. If that is all we know then it really could be anything, do we have any idea on the launch profile or anything of the nature?

We know the direction it's being launched in due to the keep-out zones;

and we have a launch timeline:

but if anything they make it more mysterious. It's not a low orbit, but it doesn't match any GTO, or direct launch to GEO.

Edited September 16, 2014 by Kryten

[Kryten]

Webcast is live, but launch at the planned time is unlikely due to rainfall being above limits. It's unclear if it'll clear in the window.

[Endersmens]

It will probably delay until later tonight.

EDIT: They are holding at T-4 minutes, waiting for a new T-0, and they expect it to clear up during the launch window. Will be monitoring.

Edited September 16, 2014 by Endersmens

[Endersmens]

Derp. Another new expected launch time: 19:28 EDT, or 37 minutes after the time stamp in this post.

[Endersmens]

And another new launch time. 19:44 EDT. 11 minutes after this post.

[sgt_flyer]

Countdown resumed at t-4 minutes for launch at 8:10PM EDT (less than 2 minutes after this post's timestamp.

[Scotius]

And we have a liftoff Textbook launch so far. Good job ULA.

[Endersmens]

I accidentally got distracted and panicked when I saw that it was 8:09, and got on right as it lifted off. Such a beauty.