
Powerful Delta 4 Heavy rocket boosts spy satellite into space from California
CBSN
A powerful United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy, one of only four remaining on the company's books, blasted off from California on Monday afternoon, lifting a classified National Reconnaissance Office spy satellite into space.
The Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-68A engines powering the rocket's three side-by-side "common booster cores" thundered to life with a roaring rush of flame at 4:47 p.m. EDT, pushing the 233-foot-tall vehicle away from launch complex 6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base northwest of Los Angeles. Generating 2.1 million pounds of thrust — the equivalent of 51 million horsepower — the hydrogen-fueled engines quickly propelled the rocket skyward, consuming 5,000 pounds of liquid hydrogen and oxygen propellants per second as it arced away on a southerly path over the Pacific Ocean.
Santa Fe, New Mexico — A representative for the estate of actor Gene Hackman is seeking to block the public release of autopsy and investigative reports, especially photographs and police body-camera video related to the recent deaths of Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa after their partially mummified bodies were discovered at their New Mexico home in February.

In the past year, over 135 million passengers traveled to the U.S. from other countries. To infectious disease experts, that represents 135 million chances for an outbreak to begin. To identify and stop the next potential pandemic, government disease detectives have been discreetly searching for viral pathogens in wastewater from airplanes. Experts are worried that these efforts may not be enough.