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History of the Delta Launch Vehicle



Current Delta News

(What about Delta IV?)
29-Jun-00 | Radarsat-2 reprieve

Radarsat-2 will fly on a Delta II after all. The spacecraft had disappeared from the schedule for quite a while after the U.S. Government balked at the 3-metre ground resolution of the advanced synthetic aperture radar. Apparently those issues have been resolved because no mention is made in either Boeing’s press release or that of Radarsat’s owner and prime contractor, MacDonald Dettwiler.

29-Jun-00 | Delta production to consolidate

Bad news for Huntington Beach as Boeing has announced plans to consolidate Delta production by moving several processes to Pueblo and Decatur. This has likely been in the works for some time considering the size of the new facility in Alabama. The shift will reduce the Delta workforce by over 300 people in production and support.

16-Jun-00 | Next launch

The next Delta II will carry NAVSTAR 2R-5, a Global Positioning System replenishment satellite. The launch has returned to the schedule, meaning that the stacking issue has been resolved. During initial stacking around the 1st of June, engineers were unable to make the interstage and the second stage thrust skirt mate properly. (The interstage is a hollow cylindrical section atop the first stage that conceals the second stage engine and joins the two stages.) The interstage was suspected of being out of round and was replaced, but a second attempt also failed. Boeing engineers proceeded to take precise measurements of all parts involved to determine what needed modification or replacement. In the meantime, the Air Force chose not to reserve a range slot until the stacking resumed. This flight is slated to carry a “twin videoroc,” a pair of aft-facing cameras mounted 180 degrees apart on the second stage, for an unprecedented view of launch and staging. Unfortunately, the new launch date slipped far enough into the future that the launch window is now over an hour before dawn, and the electrical crew may have to pull the hardware for use on a later flight.

16-Jun-00 | Delta III to launch first dummy payload in Delta history

On Wednesday, Boeing officially announced the next mission for Delta III. Designated DM-F3 (Delta Mission – Flight 3), it will carry a dummy payload to geostationary transfer orbit and will fly some time in mid-August. 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)

11-May-00 | Delta flight 278 – NAVSTAR IIR-4

Another perfect flight for Delta II as Air Force controllers have made contact with NAVSTAR 2R-4, the latest addition to the Global Positioning System (GPS) constellation, and have determined it to be in its proper orbit. The three-stage 7925 model lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 17, Pad A, on Wednesday, 10 May, at 21:48 EDT, the opening of a 29-minute window. Spacecraft separation occurred 25 minutes, 19 seconds later.

NAVSTAR (Navigation Signal Timing and Ranging) 2R-4 is the fourth upgraded model to fly and the 31st satellite in the Block 2 (operational) constellation. All have flown aboard Delta II’s (the experimental Block 1 GPS sats flew on Atlases), and 17 additional Block 2R’s are manifested over the next few years. This satellite replaces NAVSTAR 2-1, the original Block 2, which was launched aboard the very first Delta II on 14 February, 1989. NAVSTAR 2-1, having exceeded its 7-year design lifetime, suffered shutdown of its reaction wheels on 26 March and was decommissioned on 14 April.

In additional GPS news, on 1 May the Air Force ceased the use of selective availability (SA), a system that intentionally degrades the GPS signal available to civilian users. SA was arguably meant to prevent potential enemies from using off-the-shelf receivers in missile targeting systems, but the White House and the Department of Defense agreed “that worldwide transportation safety, scientific, and commercial interests could best be served by discontinuation of SA.” (USAF release) SA can be (and still is) used on a regional basis in those parts of the world considered to contain threats to U.S. interests, and the U.S. mililtary continues to use an encrypted portion of the ranging signal for maximum precision. However, the discontinuance of SA means that improvement in accuracy for civilian receivers is thought to have increased up to tenfold, and much of the benefit of more expensive differential (DGPS) receivers is moot.

01-May-00 | Delta launch team awarded

Congratulations to the Boeing Delta II Launch Division! The George M. Low award, NASA’s highest honour for quality and technical performance, has been awarded to the Delta team in the large-business product category. (NASA Press Release, 28-Apr-00)

28-Apr-00 | NAVSTAR scrub

Second scrub in two days at Pad 17A. This time, concerns were raised about the spacecraft’s solar panel deployment mechanisms. Last night’s attempt was scrubbed due to a problem with ground support equipment for payload power.

Next Delta launch will be the fourth replacement satellite for the Air Force’s Global Positioning System (GPS) constellation, also known as NAVSTAR 2R-4. This satellite will replace NAVSTAR 2-1, the original member of the operational GPS constellation, which was launched aboard the very first Delta II on 14 February, 1989. NAVSTAR 2-1, having exceeded its 7-year design lifetime, suffered shutdown of its reaction wheels last month and was decommissioned on 14 April.

29-Mar-00 | Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander cancelled

Following the release of the Mars Program Independent Assessment Team’s report, NASA has announced the indefinite postponement (i.e. cancellation) of the Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander mission. This 28-Mar-00 NASA Press Release highlights the MPIAT’s findings.

29-Mar-00 | Delta flight 277 – IMAGE

NASA’s IMAGE mission (Imager for Magnetopause to Aurora Global Exploration) was launched on schedule from Vandenberg’s SLC-2W on Saturday, 25 March. The Delta launch team had a flawless countdown, obviously having gathered no moss since the last flight from the west coast back in April 1999. The spacecraft was placed into a highly elliptical orbit with perigee of 540 nm and apogee of 24,796 nm. IMAGE, the first of NASA’s MIDEX (Medium-Class Explorer) series, will spend two years observing the response of the Earth’s magnetosphere to changes in the solar wind.

20-Mar-00 | Iridium declares bankruptcy

Iridium is kaput. The beleaguered company, in the throes of reorganisation following a declaration of bankruptcy in August 1999, has been unable to secure financing to remain afloat. Customer service was terminated at 23:59EST on 17 March, and the process of deorbiting a total of 88 satellites will begin soon.

Eleven Delta II vehicles launched the majority of Iridium’s satellites over an 18-month period. The demise of Iridium has made industry analysts nervous about the futures of other satellite telephony companies such as Globalstar, which just completed its primary constellation (on their seventh Delta flight), and ICO, which despite its own bankruptcy reorg is beginning to build its constellation. (The first ICO spacecraft was lost in a Sea Launch/Zenit vehicle failure on 12 March. As many as five satellites are intended to launch on Delta III vehicles in the next year.)

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