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History of the Delta Launch Vehicle



Current Delta News

(What about Delta IV?)
16-Nov-00 | Iridium satellites get new use?

The Iridium constellation, of which 55 satellites were launched on Delta vehicles, has been given a possible new lease on life. (Press release from Iridium Satellite LLC at Spaceflight Now, 15-Nov-00) (Note that SpaceViews later announced that this release had been recalled for unspecified reasons.)

13-Nov-00 | MSX’s new mission

Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX), a $1 billion satellite used by the Pentagon’s Ballistic Missile Defense Organization to monitor missile warheads in flight, has been given a new purpose: space surveillance. Since MSX’s primary infrared sensor shut down in February 1997, Air Force Space Command has been using a secondary instrument, the Space-Based Visible Sensor, to scan deep space. In the past three years, MSX has catalogued nearly 150 orbiting objects — debris, spent rocket stages, and many defunct satellites — that were previously unknown or lost. MSX was launched aboard Delta 235 from Vandenberg on 24 April 1996. (SpaceViews, 07-Nov-00)

10-Nov-00 | Delta flight 281 – NAVSTAR IIR-6

The 33rd GPS satellite to successfully fly aboard a Boeing Delta II was placed into orbit today during a 25-minute flight.  In honour of Veteran’s Day, the three-stage Delta 7925 wore a POW-MIA banner on its flank. Delta flight 281 departed Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 17-A at 12:14:02.219 EST and rapidly vanished into a low-lying cloud deck. All systems and stages aboard the vehicle performed well. A synchronization problem with the Antigua tracking station prevented realtime data acquisition during the two second stage burns, but this did not hamper the flight. NAVSTAR 2R-6 was released into a 101 x 10998 nautical mile orbit, from which it will propel itself to a circular orbit within a few days. The launch was delayed by one day so the launch team could confirm the proper installation of a locking nut on a vernier engine fuel line.

28-Sep-00 | News round-up

In the past month:

23-Aug-00 | Delta flight 280 – DM-F3

SUCCESS!!!

The Boeing Delta team is celebrating this morning as Delta III had a glorious morning launch from Cape Canaveral’s Pad 17B. The terminal countdown went smoothly with no major problems reported. The launch time was pushed back from the opening of the window by five minutes as engineers wanted the second stage hydrogen tank housing to have a bit more time to chill down to a desired temperature range. Liftoff occurred at 07:05:00.050 EDT, with every flight event occurring exactly at its expected time. Spacecraft separation came at T+36 minutes, 30 seconds.

Boeing is hopeful that this success will restore customer confidence in Delta III, which suffered unrelated failures in its first two launch attempts, both of which lost operational communications satellites. This mission, DM-F3, was paid for entirely by Boeing and carried a dummy payload to geostationary transfer orbit that simulates “the mass and frequency characteristics of common commercial communication payloads sized for Delta III.” The University of Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research, in partnership with USAF, will utilize the payload for a variety of missions and studies.

14-Aug-00 | Aerojet and Pratt & Whitney to merge

Aerojet, builder of Delta II’s AJ10-118K second stage, and Pratt & Whitney, builder of Delta III’s RL10B-2 second stage, have announced plans to form a new space propulsion company that would consolidate most of Aerojet’s propulsion programs under P&W aegis. Most of Aerojet’s engine manufacturing would be relocated from the company’s Sacramento facility, allowing GenCorp (Aerojet’s parent company) to focus on other market segments, such as space electronics. A definitive agreement is expected by the end of 2000. (Aerojet press release, 17-Jul-00)

14-Aug-00 | NASA to launch a pair of Mars rovers

NASA has announced it will launch twin rovers to Mars in 2003. (NASA Press Release, 10-Aug-00) Both landers will use the tetrahedral airbag landing system proven on Mars Pathfinder in 1997. Unlike Pathfinder, the science packages will be 100% rover, without base stations. Two separate regions on Mars are targeted. The missions will fly on identical Delta II (7425) vehicles; the addition of a second mission deals with NASA’s surplus rocket problem caused by the cancellation of the Mars 2001 lander. (28-Mar-00 NASA Press Release)

16-Jul-00 | Next launch

The launch of flight 279 has cleared the way for Boeing to focus on the next Delta launch, which will be the return-to-flight of Delta III, designated DM-F3, carrying a dummy payload to geostationary transfer orbit. The payload simulates “the mass and frequency characteristics of common commercial communication payloads sized for Delta III,” specifically a Hughes HS-601HP, and will travel a nearly identical flight profile to that of Delta 269, which left Orion 3 stranded in an incorrect orbit. (Boeing press release)

16-Jul-00 | Delta flight 279 – NAVSTAR IIR-5

A Delta II 7925 vehicle lifted off at the opening of its window this morning, successfully placing NAVSTAR 2R-5 into its proper transfer orbit.

Delta flight 279 left Pad 17A at an official range time of 5:17:00.450 EDT. Thanks to the generosity of a friend at Boeing, I was lucky enough to witness the launch from a guest site at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. By the reckoning of my GPS receiver, appropriately enough, the stands were about 2.7 miles from the pad and offered a great view. From the top of the bleachers, the tips of the solid booster motors could be seen above a distant stand of trees. With cloud banks fringing the horizon and a full moon in the western sky, the weather was perfect. A steady breeze kept mosquitoes to a minimum, despite the dire warnings of the efficient and friendly base personnel.

The countdown was almost frighteningly quiet. No vehicle problems were reported. No weather issues or COLAs (collision avoidance periods) came up. The Air Force’s new emphasis on providing adequate marine alerts to the local community (along with the early morning hour) kept any fishing boats from wandering into the debris danger zone. Nothing stood in the way of an on-time launch.

An hour before sunrise, the rocket rose into the dark sky atop a blinding glare and lit up the humid air with a hazy grey glow. Just over a minute into the flight, the air-lit solids burst into action and the spent ground-lits dropped away. The orange glow from the tails of all 6 motors could be seen twinkling as they tumbled. Before the remaining 3 solids could be jettisoned, the vehicle disappeared from view over the thick cloud bank to the east.

NAVSTAR 2R-5, a Global Positioning System replenishment satellite, entered its 101 x 10998 nautical mile transfer orbit less than 26 minutes after liftoff. In about 2 days, the onboard AKM will fire to circularise the orbit. Sixteen more GPS 2R satellites are manifested aboard Delta II. After that will be the end of an era dating back to 1989, as the next-generation GPS 2F satellites are included in the Air Force’s EELV contract for Delta IV rockets.

06-Jul-00 | DS-1 restarts engine after rescue succeeds

Way cool! Deep Space 1 (Delta 261) has restarted its ion engine for the first time since the loss of its star tracker, following a significant rescue mission. Program manager Dr. Marc Rayman’s giddy mission log has the full story.

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