Boeing's Success with Delta 3 Resonates with Aerospace Inustry Analysts


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	Delta 3’s Success Resonates with Analysts By Mary Motta Senior Business Correspondent posted: 07:00 pm ET 23 August 2000

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Boeing, the world's largest aerospace company, has proved that its Delta 3 rocket’s troubles are fixed and the booster is ready for business after its successful launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, analysts said Wednesday, August 23.

Future of the Delta 3

The company plans a series of at least five versions of Delta 4, including a heavy-lift version that could become the world's most powerful launchers.These rockets will likely launch military and commercial satellites into orbit over the next 20 years from Cape Canaveral in Florida and from Vandenberg AFB inCalifornia.

Delta's next launch is targeted for October 17 when a Delta 2 rocket is to carry NASA's Earth Orbiter 1 land-imaging testbed satellite from VandenbergAir Force Base in California.The next launch from Cape Canaveral is expected to be NASA's Atlantis space shuttle on September 8.

Images

A Delta 3 sits on a Cape launch pad early on Aug. 23, 2000.

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A long range camera records the six solid rocket boosters separating from the Delta 3.

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A Boeing rocketcam shows the Delta 3's first stage dropping away from the second stage nozzle.

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"By definition, a successful launch encourages confidence," said telecommunications analyst George Reed-Dellinger of Washington, D.C.-based Washington Analysis.

After two stinging failures, the demonstration launch was seen as critical to keeping Boeing [BA] competitive with rockets made by Lockheed Martin and France’s Arianespace. The company had failed to get a commercial payload for the launch because it needed to prove that the Delta 3 was ready to fly its customers’ satellites, analysts said.

"If you have an unreliable product, it makes the space-related business very difficult because the financial loss is so great" said analyst Roger Rusch of consulting firm TelAstra in Palos Verdes Estates, California. This launch will turn around the Delta 3’s image, he said.

Eighteen more launches are planned for the booster, which would carry 11 satellites for Hughes Space & Communications, a unit of Hughes Electronics [GMH], five for Loral Space & Communications [LOR] and two for SkyBridge.

Commercial satellite customers were pleased with the news of the successful launch.

"The availability of different rockets for different payload requirements is an important factor in strengthening the entire space industry," said Mac Jeffery, spokesman for Loral Space and Communications.

Loral’s Orion 3 satellite failed to reach orbit in May 1999 when an engine combustion chamber cracked in a Delta 3 booster.

The mishap followed on the heels of a previous failure in August 1998, when a Delta 3 exploded and destroyed a PanAmSat [SPOT] satellite. The loss was later blamed on faulty control-system software.

The Delta failures had a ripple effect on Boeing. Besides the psychological component, they sliced into the company’s bottom line, costing it about $450 million.

In addition, Boeing took a one-time, after-tax charge of $34 million in the second quarter of this year in anticipation of the latest launch Wednesday. The aerospace giant posted net earnings of $620 million, or $0.71 a share, compared to $701 million, or $0.75 per share, in the prior year.

Boeing is anxious to maintain the Delta 3's status as a viable launch vehicle in the marketplace as it plans for the debut of its Delta 4 in the spring or summer of 2001.