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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 September, 2009
28-Sep-09 | Next launch
The next Delta II launch will be Worldview-2, a commercial Earth-imaging satellite owned by DigitalGlobe of Longmont, Colorado. The launch from SLC-2W at Vandenberg is set for 8 October, a two-day delay caused by postponements in the launch of Delta 344. Worldview-2’s predecessors, QuickBird-2 and Worldview-1, each launched aboard Delta II vehicles.
25-Sep-09 | Delta flight 344 – STSS Demo
The second launch of the year by Delta II for the Department of Defense’s Missile Defense Agency has completed successfully.
Liftoff from Cape Canaveral’s SLC-17B occurred on Friday, 25 September, at an official range time of 08:20:00.223 EDT. The 65° flight azimuth took the Delta II vehicle over Europe for the first time since Mars Odyssey in 2001 (Delta 284).
This mission deployed a pair of remote sensing satellites that will demonstrate the space-based component of “a layered Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) designed for the overall mission of detection, tracking, and interception of ballistic missiles.” Both satellites were deployed less than an hour after liftoff while in range of the Diego Garcia tracking station in the Indian Ocean, into circular orbits about 729 nautical miles in altitude.
Launch was scrubbed on two previous days for weather conditions. The delay has impacted on the next Delta II flight, Worldview-2, which was previously slated for 6 October from Vandenberg AFB but has not yet been rescheduled.