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History of the Delta Launch Vehicle



Current Delta News

(What about Delta IV?)
15-Apr-03 | SIRTF update

NASA’s Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) was bundled into its cylindrical transport container on Thursday, 3 April, and was hauled to SLC-17B in the early morning of 5 April. As of Saturday afternoon it had been hoisted into Level 9 of the Mobile Service Tower and attachment to the Delta second stage was in work. Barring any difficulties, expect fairing installation to take place early in the next week. Meanwhile, NASA has chosen to postpone announcement of the SIRTF Naming Contest winner until about four months after launch, to coincide with the release of the first images from the Great Observatory.

01-Apr-03 | Delta flight 297 – NAVSTAR IIR-9

Monday, 31 March, saw the launch of NAVSTAR IIR-9, a replenishment satellite for the U.S. Air Force’s Global Positioning System. Winds were gusty at the time of service tower rollback, causing the rocket to occasionally sway back and forth until it was weighted down with fuel and oxidizer, but subsided early enough that the countdown was essentially as clear as the blue skies at the Cape. A glitch with some Eastern Range hardware, coupled with a wayward aircraft that wandered momentarily into the exclusion zone, pushed the liftoff to the very end of the day’s window, which occurred at 17:09:00.850 EST.

The 297th Delta flight (the 106th for Delta II) went off flawlessly, placing Space Vehicle Number 45 into its proper transfer orbit just over 68 minutes after liftoff. In the next few days the satellite will boost itself into its operational orbit to replace NAVSTAR II-5, which launched aboard Delta 190 more than 13 years ago. (II-5 has some life left in it and will be moved into a “close pair” co-orbit with IIA-11 to serve as a backup.) The Global Positioning System, which consists of ground control and user segments in addition to the space segment, is an important part of the “smart munitions” being employed in America’s present conflict, and as such has been mentioned a lot lately in the media (which often mistakenly refer to it as “Global Positioning Satellite“). GPS is also widely used in civilian applications on land, sea, and in the air.

27-Mar-03 | SIRTF update

Preparations for the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) continue at SLC-17B as the Delta second stage was hoisted into place on 14 March, two days later than expected in a previous update. The flight simulation and countdown test was performed on 26 March, while the first stage leak check (including first stage LOX loading) and a simulated countdown has been rescheduled for 2 April. Functional testing of SIRTF is complete, and the spacecraft will be transported to the pad for hoisting on 4 April. Launch is set for Friday, 18 April, 2003, at 4:32:49 a.m. EDT.

20-Mar-03 | THEMIS selected as MIDEX-5

NASA has selected the fifth mission of the Medium-Class Explorer (MIDEX) program, expected to launch aboard a Delta Med-Lite in 2007. It is Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms, or THEMIS, and will consist of five small, identical satellites flying in formation to track disturbances in Earth’s magnetic tail. (NASA Contract Release, 20-Mar-03)

07-Mar-03 | SIRTF arrives in Florida

The Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, 6 March. The last of NASA’s Great Observatories was transported in a three-vehicle land convoy from the Lockheed Martin plant in Sunnyvale, California, and will be prepared for launch in the clean room of Hangar AE. Meanwhile, its launch vehicle, the first Delta II-Heavy, began stacking at Pad 17B on 24 February. Main stage and solid boosters are in place, with upcoming events currently scheduled as follows (JPL Press Release, 06-Mar-03):

11-Feb-03 | New MAP of the universe

NASA has released the sharpest image of the “infant universe” captured to date, the result of a 12-month full-sky survey by MAP (Delta 286). Now known as the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, WMAP returned data some 35 times more detailed than those provided in 1992 by COBE (Delta 189). Thanks to these results, scientists now believe the age of the universe is 13.7 billion years. (NASA Press Release, 11-Feb-03)

29-Jan-03 | Delta flight 295 – NAVSTAR IIR-8

Today marked the second Delta II launch in just over two weeks, as flight 295 placed NAVSTAR IIR-8 into a perfect transfer orbit for the U.S. Air Force and its Global Positioning System. The Air Force, Boeing, the Delta rocket and the weather apparently all took to heart the message of the Delta’s commemorative nose art, “Let’s Roll!”, as the terminal countdown was flawless and the vehicle lifted off right at the opening of its 14-minute window. (Official liftoff time, 18:06:00.431 UTC) Just over 68 minutes later the third stage separated from the spacecraft after placing it in a elliptical transfer orbit of about 11,000 n.m. apogee. Within the next few days IIR-8 will fire its on-board kick motor to reach operational orbit, where it will eventually replace spacecraft SVN-22 (launched 03-Feb-93 aboard Delta 218). Meanwhile, the experimental XSS-10 microsatellite remained attached to the AJ10-118K second stage for several hours before deploying to perform its guidance and control software test.

17-Jan-03 | Delta flight 294 – ICESAT / CHIPSAT

After a one-day delay caused by a faulty helium valve unit in a piece of ground support equipment, Delta flight 294 launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in the evening of Sunday, 12 January, 2003 (official launch time was 00:45:00.102 UTC on 13-Jan-03). The two-stage Delta II successfully placed ICESAT and its co-payload CHIPSAT in their proper orbits. As this author had the misfortune to be incommunicado during the launch, readers interested in a play-by-play of the launch are advised to check out Justin Ray’s coverage at Spaceflight Now.

20-Dec-02 | ICESAT/CHIPSAT delay

At Vanderberg Air Force Base, the flight of ICESAT and its co-payload CHIPSAT has been postponed. According to a NASA Launch Advisory, “During a review of test data, a problem within an ordnance box was found. The difficulty is associated with the signal this unit provides for launch vehicle devices to unlatch and separate the payload fairing. The removal and replacement of this unit and the associated retest will take approximately two weeks.” The launch of the two-stage Delta Med-Lite 7320 will occur no earlier than the evening of 11 January 2003.

20-Dec-02 | CONTOUR mission failure

NASA’s Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) has come to a disappointing end. Communication with CONTOUR was lost on 15 August during its Earth-orbit departure burn in what may have been a catastrophic failure. On 17 and 20 December, the largest antennae of the Deep Space Network were used to send commands instructing CONTOUR to transmit through its omnidirectional antenna in the hope that it might bleat out a response. None was heard, and mission operators will recommend to NASA that further attempts not be made, and the project formally closed down. The investigative board led by NASA Chief Engineer Theron Bradley is expected to release its preliminary findings in January.

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