Top Secret Reconnaissance Rocket Launches From California Air Force Base

LOMPOC (CBS SF) -- A rocket blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base under the cover of darkness Wednesday morning, carrying a top secret payload of government supplies.

Weather conditions were ideal, and everything went off with limited issues, according to Air Force officials.

The Delta IV rocket lifted off at 3:39 a.m. PST, under cover of night. It was carrying supplies for the National Reconnaissance Office, the Virginia-based government agency that oversees designing, launching and maintaining U.S. intelligence-gathering satellites.

NRO missions are always classified, so no information about the nature of the supplies was released.

Two more NRO missions are slated for later this year, according to the aerospace website Space Flight Insider. One is scheduled for May, from Vandenberg AFB, and another in June from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Vandenberg AFB is located about 10 miles northwest of Lompoc, California.