Dear VAFB, With the impending launch, discussion amongst local astronomy club members has returned to a "mystery" none of us have been able to solve. On September 20 last year, around 9 pm, I captured a time-lapse of one of your launches from here in New River, AZ. That's pretty much straight east of VAFB according to Google Earth. You can see that time-lapse here: http://www.dfacaz.org/astrophotos/Atlas-Heim.html The puzzle is the obviously northward trajectory since, from what I understand, you don't do those overland trajectories for safety reasons. It's been suggested that the northward appearance was an optical illusion, with the actual trajectory projected on my 2D view, but that would still seem to require at least a northward component to the motion. It's been suggested that what I saw was a booster stage being ejected in the direction opposite of payload motion, but the physics of that doesn't make sense to me. My guess was that, since it was an NRO payload, you waived your usual policy and did indeed launch to the north. If you could help us finally clear up this mystery, many people would appreciate it. I've been to your website looking for launch records, but couldn't find a thing. Thanks. Dan Heim President Desert Foothills Astronomy Club www.dfacaz.org -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.