It was one of the most awe-inspiring rocket launches in recent memory. On January 20, a Delta IV Heavy rocket as tall as a 23-story building blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, apparently carrying a multi-billion-dollar, school bus-size Keyhole spy satellite that took at least five years to fund and build. The noise and vibration from the 1.6-million-pound rocket were so tremendous, that the Air Force had to tell local residents it wasn’t an earthquake.

Dramatic, yes. But there was something wrong with the picture. “Ponderous,” is how Gen. C. Robert Kehler, former Air Force Space Command boss, described old-school sats last year, as reported by National Defense.

Compare the January launch to the one scheduled for today. If everything goes as planned, the military will finally get the small, fast, cheap satellite of its dreams … sometime between 8:00 and 11:00 PM EST, weather permitting. . .