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History of the Delta Launch Vehicle

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To Reach the High Frontier: A History of U.S. Launch Vehicles

"A valuable contribution to the field of aerospace literature," this book includes an extensive overview of Delta history and development along with chapters on Atlas, Titan, Scout, Space Shuttle, and much more.

Order the book today
at Amazon.com.

 

Many other excellent books about spaceflight are recommended here.

 

Sources

Contributors

Note: All information from Boeing employees is confirmed via public sources or is explicitly stated by them to be public information before it is posted to this site.

Paul Fee is an electrical engineer who works for Boeing at Vandenberg AFB. He has provided a number of corrections to the schedule of upcoming west coast flights, and most recently sent along a very cool Delta II poster and some interesting promo cards for the Delta III and IV.

Gunter Krebs created Gunter's Space Page, an astoundingly extensive online database of all things space-related. He has provided several updates to the schedule as well as other developments.

Marc "Moose" Lavigne is an electrical checkout and telemetry engineer for the Delta program at Cape Canaveral. Lately, he has doubled as a "Voice of Delta," interpreting telemetry to provide real-time commentary of launch events during Boeing and NASA broadcasts. He has graciously provided corrections and additional information on several flights, including Deltas 179-184, 236, and 253. Moose also sent a copy of a McDonnell Douglas publication which logs all Thor stages built through 1972, a wealth of information which is yet to be incorporated on this site.

Justin Ray is chief reporter for Spaceflight Now, an online daily newsmagazine that has been rapidly expanding since its debut late in 1999. He often has the enviable task of attending launches to provide detailed online countdown journals. Justin was formerly a standout reporter for Florida Today Space Online, which was a good source for up-to-the-minute space news until it was absorbed by Space.com.


Background

Alway, Peter. Rockets of the World: A Modeler's Guide, 1st edition. Ann Arbor: Saturn Press. 1993.

Corliss, William R. NASA SP-278: The Interplanetary Pioneers. Washington: U.S. Gov't Printing Office. 1972. vol 1: Summary. vol 2: System Design and Development.

Heppenheimer, T. A. Countdown: A History of Space Flight. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 1997. Available from Amazon.com

Isakowitz, Steven J. International Reference Guide to Space Launch Systems. Washington: AIAA (American Instutute of Aeronautics and Astronautics). 1991. Available from Amazon.com

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA SP-93: Significant Achievements in Space Communications and Navigation, 1958-64. Washington: U.S. Gov't Printing Office. 1966.

Rosholt, Robert L. NASA SP-4101: An Administrative History of NASA, 1958-1963. Washington: U.S. Gov't Printing Office. 1966.

Winter, Frank H. Rockets Into Space. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1990. Available from Amazon.com


Flight Log

Comprehensive sources

Flights 1-201

Isakowitz, Steven J. International Reference Guide to Space Launch Systems. Washington: AIAA (American Instutute of Aeronautics and Astronautics). 1991. Includes flight number, date, vehicle designation, site, payload, brief failure causes. Available from Amazon.com

Flights 1-235

Boeing Delta II Payload Planners Guide Source for spacecraft weights and orbit parameters.

Flights 1-237

Mike's Spacecraft Library. Source for on-orbit names, UTC dates, and management organizations.

All Flights

Jonathan's Space Report. Archive is at http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back/news.*, and McDowell has also compiled a comprehensive launch log.

Flights 2--

National Space Science Data Center. Provides many of the links for spacecraft which do not have their own program web sites. Also a good source for UTC launch times.

Tele-Satellit listing (no longer online) added PAM flights and fairing sizes for a few vehicles.

Flights 100-217

Cleary, Marc C. The Cape: Military Space Operations 1971-1992. (no longer online) Source for pad numbers and launch times, especially for Navstar launches.

Flights 232-271

Florida Today Space Online.

Specific flights

Flights 35, 40, 55, 60, 73 (Interplanetary Pioneers)

Corliss, William R. The Interplanetary Pioneers. NASA SP-279.

Flight 51 (Biosatellite 2)

Wilson, Charles A., "The Biosatellite II Mission", BioScience Magazine, v. 18 no. 6, June 1968.

Flights 64-74

Science and Technology Division, Library of Congress. "Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1969: Chronology on Science, Technology, and Policy". NASA History Series SP-4014.

Flights 82-86

Science and Technology Division, Library of Congress. "Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1971: Chronology on Science, Technology, and Policy". NASA History Series SP-4016.

Flights 94-99

Science and Technology Division, Library of Congress. "Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1973: Chronology on Science, Technology, and Policy". NASA History Series SP-4018.

Flights 100-106

Brun, Nancy L. "Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1974: A Chronology". NASA History Series SP-4019.

Flights 107-118

Brun, Nancy L. and Ritchie, Eleanor H. "Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1975: A Chronology". NASA History Series SP-4020.

Flights 119-127

Ritchie, Eleanor H. "Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1976: A Chronology". NASA History Series SP-4021.

Flights 128-137

Ritchie, Eleanor H. "Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1977: A Chronology". NASA History Series SP-4022.

Flights 138-147

NASA History Office. "Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1978: A Chronology". NASA History Series SP-4023.

Flight 178

U.S. House. Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications of the Committee on Science and Technology. Delta Launch Vehicle Accident Investigation Hearing, 5 June 1986. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1986.

Flight 190

Aviation Week & Space Technology [AW&ST] 18 Jun 90 p73i

Flight 202

AW&ST 14 Jan 91 p24

Flights 202-206

Personal correspondence of 16-Jan-96 with Marc Seibert, former curator of the KSC Expendable Launch Vehicles Page. (no longer online) Includes flight number, date & UT, payload. All from CCAFS, all successful.

Flight 207

AW&ST (ca. March 1992). States the launch at 23-Feb-92, JSR 105 agrees. Seibert claims a launch date of 23-Jul-91.

Flight 233

AW&ST 4-Mar-96.


The Nippon Delta

Thiokol, Inc. The Thiokol/NASDA Connection. (no longer online)

NASDA.History of Japanese Rocket Development, part 4: Moving Toward an Entirely Japanese Rocket

Dr. Ryojiro Akiba. History & Outlook for Japanese Space Efforts

Jean-Jacques Serra. NASDA Vehicles


Delta, Satcom, and the Cable Boom

Matt Stump, ed. Cable Television: The First 50 Years — The Satellite Breakthrough. (no longer online)


Last update, 11 February 2010.

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History of the Delta Launch Vehicle by Kevin S. Forsyth