History of the Delta Launch Vehicle
Background
Flight Log
Current News
Upcoming Launches
Frequently Asked Questions
Programs and Links
Vehicle Description
Performance Specs
Sources
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.
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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.
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.
Visits since 04-Dec-97
