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History of the Delta Launch Vehicle



Current Delta News

(What about Delta IV?)
14-Feb-01 | EUVE shut down

The era of EUVE, the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer, has ended. After making its last observations on 26 January, the spacecraft was commanded to switch off on 2 February. Also known as Explorer 67, EUVE was launched on Delta flight 210 on 7 June 1992, and opened a never-before-seen range of the electromagnetic spectrum to scientific observation. EUVE completed its primary mission in 1996 and has been a platform for guest observations ever since. It will likely perform an uncontrolled reentry about one year from now. (Jonathan’s Space Report #446, 10-Feb-01)

07-Feb-01 | Launch contract option exercised for NOAA-N

NASA has exercised an option on its 1996 Med-Lite launch contract with Boeing to launch NOAA-N for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in early 2003. (Boeing press release, 7-Feb-01)

30-Jan-01 | Delta flight 283 – NAVSTAR IIR-7

In the early morning of Tuesday, 30 January, the 283rd Delta rocket launched NAVSTAR 2R-7, another Air Force Global Positioning System replenishment satellite. After a short countdown delay, the flight was a complete success despite difficulties with telemetry reception during the third stage burn. The 34th GPS satellite to reach orbit on a Delta entered a nominal transfer orbit 25 minutes after liftoff.

The mission patch, emblazoned on the side of the vehicle, honoured the 10 year anniversary of Operation Desert Storm, “the first space war” — i.e. the first conflict with extensive operational use of GPS. This latest GPS satellite will replace GPS 2A-10, launched in 1990 aboard Delta 201, which has exceeded its 7-year design lifetime and will move to a backup position.

26-Jan-01 | Boeing Delta programs merged

Boeing has merged its Delta II/III and Delta IV programs into a single entity, headed by Dan Collins, formerly vice president of the EELV/Delta IV program. (Spaceflight Now reprint of Boeing release, 23-Jan-01)

17-Jan-01 | Mars Odyssey arrives at KSC

The Mars Odyssey spacecraft arrived at Kennedy Space Center’s Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facility 2 (SAEF-2) on Thursday, 4 January, following transport from Colorado aboard a C-17 Globemaster III operated by the 315th Airlift Wing, based at Charleston AFB, South Carolina.

Readers familiar with Delta history will recognise this aircraft’s name from the instrumental role that the Globemaster II played in Thor missile design, though today’s C-17 is considerably larger than the C-124 of the 1950’s. (JPL release, 05-Jan-01, USAF release, 8-Jan-01, USAF photo during loading at Buckley AFB, Colo.)

One of its main instruments, the Gamma Ray Spectrometer, was shipped from the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory to KSC last week. (UA LPL has contributed to a massive list of planetary missions, including NEAR and Mars Global Surveyor.) A streaming web cam showing spacecraft processing is now available at the project web site. Mars Odyssey is set for launch on Saturday morning, 7 April, the first day of a 12-day primary launch window. Two instantaneous launch opportunities are available on this day.

10-Jan-01 | MGS mission extended

NASA has approved funding to extend the mission of Mars Global Surveyor through April 2002. MGS’ primary mission will end on 31 January. (Space.com, 13-Dec-00) Also, a KSC release (14-Dec-00) makes official what had previously been speculated here, that the second Mars Rover of 2003 will fly aboard a Delta II, exercising an option on a launch services contract signed with Boeing in June 2000.

10-Dec-00 | Venerable deep space probe found still alive

On Friday, managers at Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, successfully received a signal from Pioneer 6, NASA’s oldest surviving spacecraft. Next Saturday, 16 December, will mark the 35th anniversary of Pioneer 6’s launch from Cape Canaveral aboard Delta E flight 35. The lightweight, barrel-shaped craft, designed for a lifetime of a mere six months, continued to have two of its six instruments functional as recently as 1997, the last time an attempt at contact was made. (Florida Today, 9-Dec-00)

27-Nov-00 | SIRTF research teams selected

NASA has selected six teams to make observations using the new Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF). In general the research will include various studies of the birth and evolution of stars, black holes, planetary systems, and galaxies. SIRTF, the first mission of NASA’s Origins Program, is currently set for launch in July 2002 aboard the first Delta 7920H, a two-stage model utilizing GEM-46 booster motors from Delta III, which increase Delta II capacity by about 10% over the standard GEM-40 motors. (21-Nov-00 NASA Press Release)

26-Nov-00 | Delta flight 282 – EO-1 / SAC-C / Munin

Delta flight 282 successfully placed three satellites into orbit on Tuesday, 21 November, just in time to avoid a recurrence of Delta’s occasional reputation as a “holiday-seeking missile.” The two-stage 7320 model lifted off from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex 2-West at an official range time of 18:24:25.103 UTC, heading nearly due south to enter a high-inclination polar orbit.

Boeing’s new Dual Payload Attach Fitting (DPAF) deployed the two primary payloads about 60 and 90 minutes after launch. First was NASA’s Earth Observing-1, a new technology demonstrator that should advance and economize Earth imaging systems for future versions of the Landsat satellites. It will fly in formation with Landsat 7 (launched April 1999 on a Delta II) to directly compare the results. (In much the same way, Landsat 7 was initially placed in a similar orbit to its predecessor, the venerable Landsat 5, for calibration purposes.)

EO-1 is the latest mission in the NASA New Millennium Program, which also includes the highly successful Deep Space 1, an advanced technology demonstrator that is currently pursuing an extended mission to fly by a comet, and the disappointing Deep Space 2, the microprobes that plunged to the Martian surface in 1999 without uttering a peep. (Both launched aboard Delta II rockets, DS-2 as a subpayload of Mars Polar Lander.)

Next to deploy was the Satelite de Aplicanciones Cientificas-C (SAC-C), a joint mission of the Argentine Commission on Space Activities and NASA. SAC-C will study Earth’s magnetic field and its interaction with the solar wind, and among other objectives will track an endangered species of whale using GPS receivers attached to the whales’ backs.

Following a total of 4 second stage burns (demonstrating the Aerojet AJ-10’s high reliability and nearly unlimited restart capability), the second stage jettisoned Munin, a small secondary payload for the Swedish Institute of Space Physics. The 13-pound cube will collect data on space weather and auroral activity while assessing autonomous operation of small satellites. (Another payload, Colorado Space Grant Consortium’s Citizen Explorer-1, was not ready in time and was bumped from the flight.)

The launch was delayed by several days due to an issue with the processing records of the RIFCA, and by minor contamination on the EO-1 payload that required one half of the payload fairing to be removed for cleaning operations.

17-Nov-00 | EUVE mission to end

NASA announced that operations support for EUVE, the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer, will end in December. (17-Nov-00 NASA Press Release) Also known as Explorer 67, EUVE was launched on Delta flight 210 on 7 June 1992, and opened a never-before-seen range of the electromagnetic spectrum to scientific observation. Though the decision will save NASA up to $1 million a year, the agency claims it was based on the limited science return. EUVE completed its primary mission in 1996 and has been a platform for guest observations ever since. No missions are currently planned to replace the lost spectrum, and EUVE will likely perform an uncontrolled reentry about one year from now. (First reported in SpaceViews, 19-Sep-00)

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