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kevinforsyth.net
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.
Archive for August, 2003
25-Aug-03 | Next launches
Three flights remain on the Delta manifest for 2003. Two will be Air Force launches to maintain the Global Positioning System constellation, set to fly from Canaveral in October and December. Out at Vandenberg AFB, preparations continue on NASA’s Gravity Probe B, scheduled for launch in November.
25-Aug-03 | Delta flight 300 – SIRTF
A new era for astronomy has begun!
In the early morning hours of 25 August, NASA’s Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) was successfully placed into orbit by a two-stage Delta 7920H. Delta flight 300 — the 109th for Delta II and the second in a row for the new Delta II-Heavy configuration — leapt off Pad 17B at an official range time of 05:35:39.231 UTC. The 50-minute ride into space was quite uneventful, with the exception of telemetry issues that led to a nail-biting conclusion. Data reception dropped out prior to spacecraft separation, and the Canberra tracking station in Australia was unable to lock on to SIRTF’s signal at the expected time. For several minutes, the deployment could only be inferred from the Delta second stage’s evasive burn, which used the proper amount of fuel to make the correct movement away from the spacecraft, meaning that the 865-kilogram telescope was no longer attached. Mission controllers soon breathed a collective sigh of relief as SIRTF announced itself to be in an excellent state of health and in its proper orbit and orientation. Delta II thus continues an astounding streak of successes that now stands at 54 flights in a row.
SIRTF is the last of the Great Observatories, a highly successful group that includes the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and the venerable Hubble Space Telescope. It will map the sky in the infrared spectrum with resolution and sensitivity far surpassing its predecessors, IRAS (Delta 166) and COBE (Delta 189). SIRTF was first announced over two decades ago and suffered delays too numerous to mention during its development, leading many to joke that its acronym stood for “Someday It’s Ready To Fly.” The $1.2 billion telescope — perhaps the most expensive payload ever to fly on Delta — uses an innovative approach to cooling its instruments that substantially reduced the system’s overall weight and allowed it to be launched aboard the relatively economical medium-class vehicle. Over the next three months, the instruments will be cooled to a few degrees above absolute zero and calibrated. The first images are expected to be released around December, at which time NASA will announce the winner of the SIRTF Naming Contest.
19-Aug-03 | Stages to Saturn returns to print
Not exactly Delta-related news — unless you delve deep into the heritage of the RS-27 main engine — but this author wanted to mention that the University Press of Florida will soon re-issue one of the greatest technological histories ever to become a NASA Special Publication. Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles, by Roger E. Bilstein, chronicles the huge leaps in engineering, metallurgy, computers, and myriad other fields that were necessary to build and fly the Saturn V rocket that took man to the moon. The reprint contains the complete text, photos, and illustrations of the wildly informative original, and is available for pre-order at 30% off from Amazon.com. I highly recommend it.
05-Aug-03 | Future flight updates
Gunter Krebs has pointed out that the WISE website states that mission will launch aboard a Taurus 2210, the first MIDEX mission not to use a Delta. (WISE was named as MIDEX-6 in March, though it will be the fifth MIDEX mission to fly thanks to the cancellation of MIDEX-4, FAME.) Also, Gunter noted a sci.space.policy posting that says that the GOES missions “have silently moved to the Delta IVM+ launch vehicle, reducing the chances that Delta III will ever return to flight.” Thanks go out to Gunter for this info.
04-Aug-03 | First Mars Scout mission announced
NASA has announced that Phoenix, “an innovative and relatively low cost mission to study the red planet,” will be the first Mars Scout mission. The lander is planned to be launched aboard a Delta II Heavy in August, 2007. (NASA Press Release, 04-Aug-03)