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History of the Delta Launch Vehicle



Current Delta News

(What about Delta IV?)
07-Jun-03 | MER-A ready to go

MER-A is ready to go! Mission managers have closed out all of their reviews, and operations are progressing on schedule. Now the only issue is with the weather, which — as is typical of Florida this time of year — threatens developing afternoon thunderstorms. NASA will announce the names of the rovers, along with the grade school student who submitted the names, at a ceremony Sunday morning at 10:00 EDT, less than five hours before launch. All events will be carried live on NASA’s first-time online coverage of an expendable vehicle mission, called “NASA Direct!” — and if this mission has anywhere near the public response that Mars Pathfinder did, the real challenge tomorrow will be in keeping the web servers from being overwhelmed with visitors.

29-May-03 | MER-A delay

MER-A has been delayed for a few days in order to provide more schedule margin for mission managers to complete their pre-flight reviews. Launch is now targeted for no earlier than 8 June, but this could change by the time of the next official announcement on 2 June. The spacecraft arrived at SLC-17A on Tuesday, 27 May, and was hoisted into place atop its Delta II 7925 launch vehicle. Systems tests continue this week, and the payload fairing installation is set for Saturday, 31 May. MER-A’s launch period opens tomorrow (30 May) and extends through 19 June. (NASA ELV Status Report, 27-May-03)

16-May-03 | Send your name to a comet

NASA has invited the world to Send Your Name to a Comet! Submitted names will be stored on a compact disc to be installed on the impactor module of the Deep Impact spacecraft, a Discovery Program* mission set to launch aboard a Delta II at the end of 2004. Of course, given that the intent of the impactor is to create a crater on comet Tempel 1 as much as fourteen stories deep, should the mission succeed it will be impossible for some explorer in the distant future to retrieve the disc and play back the names. Still, the printable participation certificate is nice.

16-May-03 | Rover update

Work continues at Cape Canaveral for the flights of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers. The MER-2 rover in its entry vehicle has been mated to the MER-A cruise stage, and the complete spacecraft has been fuelled and spin balanced. It will be mated to the STAR-48B third stage on Friday, 23 May, and transported to SLC-17A the following Monday. At the pad, the first and second stages have been erected and the booster motors were installed this week. Launch remains set for 5 June. Meanwhile, full integration of the MER-1 entry vehicle is expected by 21 May, with attachment to cruise stage MER-B to follow. Stacking of the Delta 7925H launch vehicle at SLC-17B will continue over the next two weeks. MER-B’s launch period runs from 25 June through 15 July. (NASA ELV Status Report, 14-May-03)

05-May-03 | Editor’s note

On Sunday, 4 May, History of the Delta Launch Vehicle moved to a new host at kevinforsyth.net. The minor change in address (the dot was removed between “kevin” and “forsyth”) belies a major difference: the domain name is now owned by your humble editor and hosted on his own web server. With a hard drive capacity now orders of magnitude larger than previously available, the site will soon host an extensive Delta photo gallery, now in development. You may wish to update your bookmarks, though the old site (www.kevin.forsyth.net/delta/) will autoforward and remain online for the foreseeable future. Reports from the public of missing files, DNS resolution errors, and especially slow-loading pages will be greatly appreciated.

25-Apr-03 | Update

At SLC-17B, destacking operations for SIRTF are set to begin on Monday, 28 April. Contrary to an earlier report on this site, the launch vehicle’s first stage and seven of its nine booster motors will remain in place for use by MER-B. This seems to imply that two of the GEM-46 motors are suffering from delaminated nozzles, though official reports have stated only one motor was suspect. The Delta second stage must be removed in order to replace it with one with the proper attach fitting for a three-stage flight (and possibly also with a different pressure bottle configuration). MER-B is now set to launch on 25 June, no sooner than 10 days after the launch of MER-A. (NASA ELV Status Report, 25-Apr-03)

25-Apr-03 | Rover update

Good news for the Mars Exploration Rovers, as the circuit board rework and reinstallation is moving swiftly enough for the target launch date to move up by a day. MER-A is now set to launch on 5 June. Two instantaneous launch opporunities exist on each day through 19 June. At SLC-17A, first and second stage erection is in work this week. (NASA ELV Status Report, 25-Apr-03)

19-Apr-03 | Delays, delays

The Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) has been delayed until no earlier than mid-August, NASA officials announced on Friday. (NASA Press Release, 18-Feb-03) The “unspecified concerns” of a week ago were revealed to be “multiple delaminations within the layers of material that comprise the engine-nozzle exit-cone liner” of one of the nine GEM-46 solid booster motors. As there is insufficient time to change out the questionable motor before 7 May, the payload and the entire vehicle will be destacked to clear Pad B for Mars Exploration Rover-B.

Meanwhile, the Mars Exploration Rovers have hit a snag as well. Pre-launch testing revealed the spacecraft’s main computer could misinterpret signals sent during data cable severing events. Two sets of cables connect the lander to the cruise stage (severed during approach) and the rover to the lander (severed before the rover drives off). The fix will require partial disassembly of the spacecraft, which pushed the first launch back from 30 May to 6 June. (Spaceflight Now, 14-Feb-03)

15-Apr-03 | Mars rovers at Kennedy

The Mars Exploration Rovers are at the Kennedy Space Center and are being processed. On Friday, NASA announced their destinations. MER-A, set to launch on 6 June, will land in Gusev Crater, 15 degrees south of Mars’ equator, on 4 January 2004. MER-B, scheduled for 25 June, will take a shorter, faster path to Meridiani Planum, about two degrees south of the equator and halfway around the planet from Gusev, landing on 25 January 2004. Each site reached the top of a highly selective list for reasons both engineering — a drivable terrain, for example — and scientific. Both sites have been extensively studied, and their rovers are instrumented to provide definitive evidence for or against specific hypotheses. (NASA Press Release, 11-Feb-03)

15-Apr-03 | SIRTF delay

The Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) has been delayed. Boeing and NASA have raised unspecified concerns over the Delta II-Heavy’s GEM-46 booster motors, which have flown on three Delta III flights but are untested on Delta II. (Spaceflight Now, 10-Apr-03)

According to Boeing, the larger and longer boosters increase the Delta II’s capacity by approximately 19 percent, the largest performance upgrade for Delta II since 1990 (when the GEM-40 motors were introduced). The Delta first stage required beefed-up structure and acoustic blanket modifications to accomodate the motors as well.

At the pad, the standard skin-and-stringer 9.5-foot-diameter fairing is in place, and the program team members in the TCC are monitoring the payload closely. SIRTF has until 7 May to get off the pad, or the vehicle will be destacked and replaced with the Delta II-Heavy for the second Mars Rover, which has a very tight launch window that only comes around every 26 months. (SLC-17B is the only east coast pad that can launch Delta rockets equipped with GEM-46 motors, as its flame trench and other support systems were updated specifically for the heavier motors and their different acoustic signature. SLC-17A, which is scheduled to launch the first Rover on 6 June, is also precluded for the second Rover because the 19-day gap between the two Rover flights is insufficient to stack the Delta and properly prepare a payload with such potential public-interest value.)

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