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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 November, 2017
18-Nov-17 | JPSS-1 success!
NOAA’s JPSS-1 Earth environmental observer was launched in the early morning hours of Saturday, 18 November. The two-stage Delta II vehicle, marking its 99th consecutive success, also delivered five secondary CubeSat payloads into orbit for investigations by various universities.
JPSS-1 is the first of a new generation of polar-orbiting satellites to monitor Earth’s atmosphere, ozone layer, and radiation reflectance. It is a follow-on to the Suomi NPP satellite (Delta 357) which itself was a bridge from previous EOS missions including Aqua (Delta 291) and Aura (Delta 306).
Two launch attempts were scrubbed earlier in the week for various reasons, and ULA postponed a third attempt until upper level winds could come within acceptable limits.
The launch manifest contains one more Delta II, which is expected to launch ICESAT-2 some time in 2018. After that one complete vehicle will remain, which is rumored to be destined for a museum somewhere.
15-Nov-17 | JPSS-1
Today has seen the second scrubbed launch attempt for NOAA’s JPSS-1 Earth environmental observer. Tuesday’s early-morning attempt was scrubbed moments after coming out of the T-minus 4 minutes hold due to an anomalous voltage reading during first stage engine slew checks, along with boats in the offshore exclusion area. Today, upper level winds (in excess of 100 knots) were above acceptable limits. ULA is working a 24-hour turnaround but from the main loop discussion leading up to the second scrub it sounds like the upper level winds will continue to be out of limits for at least the next 48 hours.