CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Building on nearly five decades of hard-earned experience, a new generation of more powerful rockets is aiming to forever change the way launch operations are conducted from American soil beginning this summer.
Streamlined check-out procedures at the space center, less time with the rocket on its launch pad and more efficient manufacturing techniques back at the factory all promise to dramatically reduce the amount of money and time it takes for these latest Atlas and Delta rockets to be readied for lift off.
In addition to serving the needs of the U.S. government -- which hopes to save $6 billion in launch costs between now and 2020 -- these newer versions of already historic boosters should allow their corporate makers to better compete for commercial launch services against China, Japan, Russia and -- more specifically -- Europe's Ariane 5 rocket.
The new family of space lifters is the direct result of the U.S. Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, an effort begun in 1995 to lower the cost of doing business in space by rewriting the book on how to build, test and launch rockets.
 |
| TECH WEDNESDAY | |
| | |
|
 |  | Images |
| |
|
| A Boeing Delta 4 core booster is lifted into a Mississippi rocket engine test stand.
Click to enlarge.
| |
| |
|
| A fully stacked Lockheed Martin Atlas 5 is rolled out to its Cape Canaveral launch pad for tests during March 2002.
|
| |
| |
|
| An aerial view of complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station during March 2002 shows a fully stacked Atlas 5 on its launch pad.
|
| |
| |
|
| The first Delta 4 Common Booster Core to be delivered to Cape Canaveral rolls past a Navaho missile on display at the Air Force station during June 2001.
|
| |
| |
|  | Related SPACE.com STORIES |
| |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
|  | TODAY'S DISCUSSION | | |
| | |
|
Now, some seven years later, the results of that more than $2 billion development program sit inside new hangars located at two upgraded launch complexes at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, ready to support inaugural satellite delivery missions that could come during a one-week stretch between July 8 and July 15.
Meet the launchers
For Lockheed Martin it's the Atlas 5, a 21st Century version of the United States' first intercontinental ballistic missile that dates back to the 1950s. (With its experience flying the Titan 4, Lockheed Martin officials decided to skip the Atlas 4 and market their new launcher as the Atlas 5.)
John Glenn and three other American astronauts flew into orbit atop early Atlas missiles converted into launch vehicles for Project Mercury.
During the 1990s, Atlas 2 began flying and has scored an impressive 100 percent success rate. The Atlas 3 is equal in record and during its two missions to date has flight proven some 85 percent of the systems that will be used on the Atlas 5.
"We couldn't be more excited. Morale is sky high," said John Karas, Lockheed Martin's vice president of Atlas development. "When you're giving birth to a new rocket, it's always the latest one you have the most affection for."
For Boeing, it's the Delta 4, the latest incarnation of a booster whose heritage goes back to the Thor intermediate range ballistic missile -- itself a direct successor of the German V-2 rocket, the world's first effective missile.
When NASA modified the Thor and called it the Delta, America's first communications satellite, Echo 1A, was orbited in 1960. As Delta's tanks were stretched and booster rockets hung on its side, the rocket sent dozens of satellites into orbit through the years, earning a solid reputation.
First flown in 1989, Delta 2 rockets soon became the U.S. workhorse of commercial launchers. The Delta 3 has been less fortunate with only one success out of three launches.
"We're really looking forward to that first launch," said Dave Herst, Boeing's director of launch sites for the Delta 4 program. "There's still a tremendous amount of work that needs to be done and people are working hard to maintain the schedule"
Next page: Read about the modifications to the Atlas and the Delta rockets.
advertisement
